Legislators representing Kikuube district are urgently appealing to the government to promptly relocate more than 1,000 individuals who were forcibly displaced from their ancestral land in Kyangwali sub-county, situated within the Bugoma forest reserve.
The affected group comprises men, women, and children who were forcefully uprooted from their residences in several villages, including Bukinda A and B, Bukinda 2, Kavule, Bwizibwera A and B in Kyangwali sub-county.
The eviction dispute emerged between the residents and the Kyangwali refugee settlement, primarily centered around the ownership of a 36 square kilometer parcel of land.
The eviction incident occurred in September 2013, when officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, accompanied by the police and the UPDF, displaced over 60,000 people from the disputed land.
Buhaguzi county MP, Francis Kazini, emphasized the necessity for the government to discover a lasting solution for the evictees, highlighting that there is available space within the Bugoma forest reserve where they could be resettled. Similarly, Florence Natumanya, the Kikuube Woman MP, expressed concern about the overwhelming number of displaced individuals seeking refuge in their homes, underscoring the lack of capacity to adequately accommodate and provide for them. She questioned why Ugandans should endure suffering in their own country while refugees from other nations receive assistance.
In January, during the inauguration of the initial oil drilling rigs in the Kingfisher area of Kikuube, President Yoweri Museveni instructed the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner to closely collaborate with his office to facilitate the return of the displaced individuals to their land.
