Buhuka landing site, Kyangwali sub-county in Kikuube district is a hamlet perched on the shoreline of Lake Albert. I alongside our cameraman, drove through a recently constructed paved road which cuts across a steep cliff.
Concealed by the rugged escarpment lies the majestic Lake Albert, which from a distance shimmers like a mirage in the desert.
The lake, a trans-boundary resource is the source of livelihood for the fishing community in this melting pot, which includes foreign nationals who escaped roaming militias in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Yet nothing prepares you for the misery and anguish of thousands trapped in appalling conditions today. Adjacent to these camps of squalor are the Kingfisher oil fields in the Albertine region.
A number of predicaments; the wrath of nature, evictions and now the Covid-19 pandemic have cast a pall on the livelihood of locals. In September 2020, Kyangwali refugee resettlement, which accommodates about 120,000 registered some of the highest spikes in Coronavirus cases. Both refugees and aid workers registered positive tests for the virus.
Beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, the hooded vale of death continues to stalk this area.
These freshly dug graves, at Buhuka, hold the remains of those who died at Lake Albert after they were evicted. These evictions enforced by the army and police at various landing sites, stretched from as far as Ntoroko to Buliisa district.
In a culture where the dead are given a dignified sendoff accompanied by eulogies and a solemn dirge to soothe the pain of those mourning, the times no longer allow for such a ritual.
Today they are hurriedly buried in shallow graves. Between April and May when many evictions were carried out, about 45 people have died after their rickety canoes capsized in the lake.
“We dig the graves as we await our colleagues who might die in the lake. We also have the Covid-19 threat now,” revealed Santos Opiyo on the day we visited Buhuka early in September.
Adjacent to this area is another grave holding the remains of two people.
Alex Mwesigye, a local politician told Vox Populi that, “We have a lot of evictions that have happened at the landing sites, Kasonga Parish, Bukuha parish, Kachunde and Senjonjo. I have close to 40 people staying at my home.”
He revealed further, “people in Kyangwali no longer sleep, they know that any day they are being chased, we are chasing people with nowhere to go and without compensating them.”
Atim Nedi was evicted from Ssenjonjo alongside her children. “I left my good home in Ssenjojo and now my five children don’t have food or good clothes, we need help because we are suffering. Government should relocate us as the cold in the night continues to batter my kids who are not well,” she revealed while standing next to a shack where she lives.
Reginal Okumu, the Local Council one chairperson of Buhuka parish says locals were expelled from landing sites without being given adequate notice.
“They issued an order that at 8 o’clock. They don’t want to see anyone here, people left their property and abandoned their homes, people are suffering, when they reach my home and I look at their situation, it hurts me, I open my house and let people enter and we just have a tarpaulin,” he said in an interview.
The displaced locals lack latrines and safe water for drinking. “Our MP, L.C. 5 councilor and L.C. 3 have not set foot here since the army chased people away. Take this report to Kampala so that people know the poor state we live in, and government wants people to live close to each other without even a mask. As the chairperson of this area, we would rather die than have a mask when my people don’t have food,” Okumu lamented.
After these evictions from a number of landing sites, government gave out 15 tonnes of maize flour to be distributed amongst 13 villages. “When you are found near the lake the army beats you, people just wonder how to get food, so there are a lot of issues at hand, we are taken to be rebels, they chase people in a discriminatory way saying ‘you Congolese go back to your country.’ Their documents like national identity cards are lost during the process,” revealed the Local Council leader.
Colbert Lule, the Secretary Sunsu village says, “They were evicted as if they were chasing wild animals, people drowned in the lake.”
On May 1, 2020, the State minister for Water and Environment, Sam Cheptoris, issued a statement at Uganda Media Centre in regard to rising water levels. “… the President of Uganda is extremely concerned that a number of people and developments in the country have encroached on wetlands, shoreline, riverbanks and forests, and have partly contributed to the problems we are seeing in the country today. In view of the above, I have been directed by the President to remove all encroachers on the wetlands, shoreline, riverbanks and government forests with immediate effect,” read the statement.
In the months of April and May, Lake Victoria experienced significant flooding impacts on the Lake Shoreline communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as well as downstream communities near Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert.
A considerable increase in rainfall in 2019 was experienced in October by 79%, in November by 56%, and in December by 74% compared to the long-term average. Observed rainfall in 2020 increased in January by 83%, in February by 25%, in March by 43%, and in April by 33% compared to the long-term average.
However, the month of May rainfall was less than the long term average, according to a July report from Nile Basin Initiative.
The cause of these major increases in rainfall in Lake Victoria sub-basin was due to a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) caused by warmer sea temperatures in the western Indian Ocean region. With water levels rising, security personnel swung into action without any due regard for human rights and measures to combat the spread of Covid-19.
The sight of a helicopter circling the skies sent villagers in Sebigoro and Nkondo villages in Kabwoya sub-county, Kikuube district into hiding.
Many of these landing sites are duly gazetted villages with elected local council systems, polling stations and schools built by government.
When we travelled here, we found most of those evicted living in congested areas including football pitches without food, clean water and latrines.
Most of the evictees were women and children. They were living in makeshift homes crafted from grass, sticks and scrap. Children and the ailing were exposed to the punishing heat from the lake. Others sought shelter at this mud and wattle church devoid of social distancing rules.
It is not clear yet who gave the orders for evictions but locals claim the Assistant Resident District Commissioner (RDC) of Kikuube, Richard Tabaro and Kikuube District Police Commander (DPC), Irene Achieng supervised the evictions. Those we spoke to claim the authorities claimed that the eviction was an ‘order from above.’
“What is strange is that we were expelled on the same day without any food. The RDC gave an ultimatum that we live in one day, people have property, people have their homes, others have children, we have no latrines, no clean water and poverty has been worsened under the lockdown. Are we human beings or are we trees?” argued Godfrey Kazaire.
Kazaire told Vox Populi that some of them were beaten by security personnel and weren’t compensated before they were expelled. “I had 400 eucalyptus trees, which I had been advised by local leaders to plant. Will I be compensated?”
“We have a lot of pain because of the way we were chased like dogs. We were given few minutes to leave and now we are congested like birds during Covid-19. Are we part of this government or not? Was it right to evict us during the pandemic?” Sylvia Namuka lamented.
Namuka who is a mother of four was born in Sebigoro village in 1990. By the time of her eviction, she had constructed a house with iron-sheets which was destroyed.
“We are starving and emaciated,” she said.
David Okello says it was a Friday when the army arrived alongside the RDC of Kikuube district. “They started sensitising us about coronavirus, the RDC said we had to take a painful decision. The army wants to have control of this area. The RDC said we must leave whether we like it or not.”
Okello said the army and police caned those who tried to resist the eviction, “We are Ugandans, we need to have enough days for communities [to be evicted]. The RDC is working against Museveni. Are we in a military government or in a democracy?”
Simon Opio fears that cholera will likely strike. “We don’t have water, the army came and intimidated us, they wanted us to leave the area. Where do you expect a population of 600 people to go within two hours? This is more than a war, people during war leave their homesteads after a week. Government made bad choices.”
In June, a boat sailing from Kyenyanja landing site in Kabwoya sub-county to Kyakapere landing site in Kyangwali sub-county capsized. Onboard were locals fleeing the forceful eviction by the army.
Earlier on in May, government announced plans to close landing sites which in its view were facilitating the illegal movement of Congolese nationals during the lockdown. Many Congolese especially those fleeing violence from the war-wracked Ituri province often cross to Uganda on canoes.
Major General Leopold Kyanda, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces Chief of Staff for Land Forces held a meeting with top security officials in the Albertine region where it was resolved to close over 200 ungazetted landing sites in the districts of Kagadi, Kikuube, Hoima and Buliisa with immediate effect.
Highly placed sources reveal that the decision to evict those at the landing sites is not only based on rising water levels but a geo-political threat from the volatile DRC.
Kabale, in Buseruka district where the refinery and Hoima International Airport is to be located has a peculiar history. It is where the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic rebel outfit launched its rebellion in the early 1990s.
A former External Security Organisation (ESO) intelligence chief speaking off the record revealed that the ADF deliberately occupied Buseruka after then implacable foe deposed Sudanese president, Omar Bashir’s Khartoum regime tried to disrupt plans to develop Uganda’s oil wells for commercial production. The ADF is currently holed up in North Kivu in the DRC.
Whereas a legitimate security concern exists, civil society officials contend that government ought to respect human rights and civil liberties.
Opio Vincent Alpha, a Councilor for Kabwoya County, Kikuube district says they were not consulted about the evictions.
“This happened under the guise of clearing up illegal landing sites but we are the custodians of local village units, we were not involved, it’s unfortunate that this could be done by our own government,” revealed Opio.
“All that was being said that we are implementing orders from above, we need to know where these orders are coming from. In case of any eviction, there must be prior plans, where do we take these people, how do we compensate them for the lost properties?”
Emanzi Christopher who works with Global Rights Alert (GRA) says the situation of those evicted is deplorable and security personnel should cease relying on iron-fisted tactics.
“How do you evict about 600 people in two days and you say you are fighting Covid-19? This is very suicidal, government needs to revise this decision, these people have rights, they should have been contacted and some negotiations taken place, some of these people have land titles, why are we not considering this? Are we going to compensate all these people we have evicted?”
As the sun sets, these fishermen in their boats, glide across the lake. But the lake is no longer the gentle tide they were accustomed to. Today they set off for the sails aware that they are in the belly of the beast.
