More than 1,000 families in Hoima district are on the verge of forceful eviction from their ancestral land. The affected families are found in Kisagara, Kasinina, Kyampaka and Kisita villages in Buraru sub-county and Bulindi town council.
They are feuding with members of the Tujenge Hoima Veterans Association over 6 square miles of land. According to the affected residents, some of them occupied the disputed land in the 1940s but they are surprised that Tujenge Hoima Veterans’ Association has come up to claim the land. They want the government to intervene and stop the veterans from evicting them from their land.
The locals also accuse the veterans of putting on military uniforms as they raid their area to threaten them with evictions.
Muhammed Irumba, the LC I Chairperson of Kyampaka village, says that the veterans have severally threatened his life just because of protecting his electorate from being evicted from their ancestral land.
Julius Mwesige,60, a resident of Kisita village, says that he has been a resident of the contested land since his birth. He wants the authorities to investigate how the veterans acquired a title for the said land without their consent.
Christopher Kasaija,70, also a resident of Kisita says members of the Tujenge Hoima Veterans’ Association have severally forced them out of their homes and gardens without following the right procedures.
Justine Kisembo, 75, a resident of Kasinina says that she has been a resident of the contested land since her childhood and was shocked when members of the Tujenge Hoima Veterans’ association raided the area and chased her away as she was cultivating her garden and destroyed her crops.
Patrick Rusoke, the LC3 Chairperson of Buraru sub-county wants the veterans investigated for putting on combat to intimidate residents from their ancestral land.
Joseph Karugaba, a member of the Tujenge Hoima veterans’ Association, says that they genuinely acquired the land in question and secured its title. He says they have severally advised the residents to voluntarily vacate the land but they have instead turned hostile.
Emmy Katera, the Hoima Resident District Commissioner-RDC, says that the affected residents petitioned his office and he assured them that nobody would be evicted from the land. He has ordered security to investigate allegations that veterans put on army uniforms and harass the residents off their land.
Katera says his office will approach the ministry for defence and veteran affairs to find out how the veterans came to acquire land in the area.
He has also ordered the police to stop all criminal proceedings against the residents in the affected villages who were accused by the veterans of malicious damage and criminal trespass. Pius Wakabi, the Bugahya county member of Parliament wonders how the Veterans have come up to evict people who have lived on the land since the 1940s.
According to Wakabi, much is needed to be done by the government to protect innocent people in the Bunyoro sub-region who are being threatened with forceful evictions moreover by big people in the government following the discovery of oil in the region.
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