At least 5,000 people grazing cattle in Kalusiina village in Maddu Rural Sub County and Kalyamawolu village in Kyayi Sub County comprising Nsowe Central Forest Reserve in Gomba district have cried out to authorities for help to prevent eviction from their land. The affected households accuse the National Forestry Authorities-NFA of deploying armed men to evict them from the land, which they have occupied for decades without following the due process of the law.
The affected households say the armed men have started arresting, detaining, extorting, and confiscating their livestock to demand for money.
Dan Buso, a resident of Kalusiina village says that he has lived on the disputed land for the last 30 years but they were surprised when NFA allocated the land to outsiders without considering them.
He explains that while allocating the land to private individuals to plant trees, the authorities allocated the pastoralists 25 hectares but they have since blocked them from accessing water sources, which is disturbing them. Pastor Francis Bwayo, one of the occupants of the disputed forest land says that they have occupied the area for decades and even buried their loved ones there but they were surprised to see authorities allocating the same land to tree planters from other areas.
Bwoya said that they are living in fear as they have nowhere to go having lived in the area for years.
George Abigaba, the LC 3 chairperson of Maddu Rural Sub County, says that the residents are being evicted because the forest land was parceled out and shared among high-profile government officials. He faults the authorities for acting in violation of the court order maintaining the status quo.
David Nassasira, chairperson of Kyayi Sub County said that there was no justice in the allocation of the forest land because peoples’ plantations were taken in violation of their rights. He accuses the NFA licensed tree planters of killing their livestock, arresting people, and detaining them in police custody while others are blocked from accessing water.
However, NFA officials who declined to be named said, the authority is only reclaiming the Central Forest reserve land measuring 5097 hectares from encroachers. According to the officials, the community members were registered and encouraged to plant trees where they were involved in agricultural activities.
Juliet Mubi, the NFA Public Relations Officer, says that the reserve has suffered from encroachers who have been illegally cultivating and grazing animals that are not allowed in the forest.
She explains that the Authority has plans of planting trees in the forest reserve hence the allocation of the land to licensed tree farmers and more than 150 households that originally occupied the forest land.
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