The Lands State Minister, Sam Mayanja, has halted the eviction of more than 20,000 residents in Kabaale Sub-county, Hoima District, who faced the threat of forceful removal from their ancestral land. The affected residents are drawn from the five villages of Ngemwa, Nyakasinini, Kigaaga B, Nzorobi, and Nkwaki, all located in Nzorobi Parish. The disputed land, approximately 10 square miles, borders the Bugoma Forest Reserve.
Residents, who have lived on the land since the 1940s, claim that on January 15, 2025, officials from the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom arrived with surveyors and attempted to survey the area without their consent. Alarmed, the locals petitioned several government offices, including the Ministry of Lands, seeking urgent intervention.
Fearing eviction, some residents had started abandoning the land, while others halted farming activities due to escalating threats reportedly issued by Kingdom officials claiming ownership of the land. Addressing the affected residents at Nzorobi Trading Center on Tuesday evening, Minister Mayanja assured them that no eviction would take place and instructed them to return to their land and resume cultivation.
He revealed that, before visiting the site, he held discussions with Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom officials, who clarified that the Kingdom does not own the land where the residents have lived for decades.
Pius Wakabi, the Bugahya County Member of Parliament, questioned the Kingdom’s sudden claims over the land and urged the government to issue free land titles to residents to protect them from land grabbers and speculators.
Uthman Mubarak Mugisa, the Hoima District LC5 Chairperson, informed the minister that several other communities across the district were also facing potential eviction by individuals who had fraudulently acquired land titles.
Mugisa appealed to Mayanja to revoke all fraudulently acquired titles. Nathan Aheebwa, the councilor for Nzorobi Parish, narrated that since January, when Kingdom officials first arrived, the community had been living in fear, with some residents beginning to vacate their homes.
Festo Bua, a resident of Ngemwa Village, added that Kingdom officials did not engage with residents when they came to survey the land. He called upon the government to ensure permanent resettlement for the affected families.
Despite the minister’s invitation, Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom officials did not attend the meeting with the affected residents. When contacted by Uganda Radio Network (URN) in January, Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom Prime Minister Andrew Byakutaga dismissed residents’ fears, explaining that the Kingdom was merely inspecting its land adjacent to the Bugoma Forest Reserve and had no plans to evict anyone.
“The Kingdom does not claim ownership of the land currently settled by these residents,” Byakutaga stated. “Our officials were conducting a routine inspection of the Kingdom’s land.” Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom owns vast tracts of land near the Bugoma Central Forest Reserve in both Kikuube and Hoima districts. However, the Kingdom has long faced criticism over activities perceived as threatening the forest’s integrity.
One notable case involved the Kingdom’s 99-year lease of about 22 square miles to Hoima Sugar Limited for sugarcane cultivation. A subsequent review by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) revealed that 13 square miles of the leased land were part of wetlands and forest reserves and were unsuitable for cultivation.
NEMA permitted Hoima Sugar to grow sugarcane on only 9.24 square miles of grassland, while authorizing the establishment of an urban center (1.26 sq mi), an eco-tourism center (1.97 sq mi), and the restoration of 3.13 square miles of forest. Another 6.17 square miles were set aside for natural forest conservation, and 0.156 hectares were preserved for a cultural site.
Despite the controversies, the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom insists that the leased land lies outside the Bugoma Forest Reserve and constitutes part of its ancestral territory adjacent to the forest.
