More than 1,000 residents of Kyangwali sub county in Kikuube district who were illegally evicted from their land are on the verge of dying due to starvation.
The affected, mainly women and children were evicted from Bukinda A and B, Bukinda 2, Kavule, Bwizibwera A and B, Kyeya A and B, Nyaruhanga, Kabirizi, Nyamigisa A and B and Katoma villages among others in Kasonga parish, Kyangwali sub-county.
The residents stormed the offices of the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC Amlan Tumusiime recently demanding his intervention to resettle them back on their land.
The residents are feuding with Kyangwali Refugee Settlement centre over 36 square kilometres of land.
However, life is becoming unbearable for them even while at the RDC’s office since they do not have what to eat.
Rosemary Nakibuuka, a mother of four who has pitch camped at the RDC’s office says life is unbearable for them since they can hardly have a meal a day.
Oliver Kaburara 54, a mother of eight says their children are on the verge of developing acute malaria since they are sleeping out in the cold.
Benon Mwesigye 55, another resident explains that they are undergoing untold suffering together with their children since they don’t have where to get food as they continue to pitch camp at the RDC’s office demanding for government intervention to have them resettled on their land. He fears that their children could soon begin dying as a result of hunger.
Muhereza Tibemanya 47, wants the government to immediately allocate them relief food items saying the situation is becoming unbearable for them.
Nebro Tumwejuke says women are the most affected calling on good Samaritans to help avail them with food in order to contain the situation.
Vincent Alpha Opio, the Kikuube LCV Vice Chairperson says the conditions under which the evicted residents are living is appalling. He called for immediate government intervention to have the residents resettled on their land.
Officials from the Kyangwali refugee settlement area and the Office of the Prime Minister have been feuding with the residents since 2013 over the ownership of the land in question.
In September 2013, OPM officials backed by the police and UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from the contested land and resettled Congolese refugees on the land.
The residents were forced to settle in camps in Kyeya village in Kyangwali sub-county under very poor conditions where they have stayed to date.
In 2016 and 2018, President Museveni ordered that the evicted residents be resettled on the land. To date, the concerned officials are yet to implement the directive.
This situation has compelled the residents to pitch camp at the RDC’s office seeking his intervention to enforce the president’s directive to resettle them on their ancestral land immediately.
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