Land grabbing is no new thing in Uganda. For many years now, many people have been forcefully removed from their land. Some compensated and others left in the middle of nowhere with nothing. Families have been displaced and abandoned, children have dropped out of school leading to early marriages, people have committed suicide and others have been beaten and killed in the process.
Last week we had a solidarity visit with the Kyangwali community and it was just another week of cries and lamentations from the local communities of Bukinda and Katikara, Kyangwali sub-county in Kikuube district western Uganda- a new district which was created in July this year. It was a tough week, from occupying the RDC’s office premises for four nights to Walking to Kampala to meet the president then being arrested and finally meeting the Speaker of parliament, Rebecca Kadaga.
Bukinda and Katikala are comprised of 28 and 7 villages respectively. These villages are homes to the people being 
threatened eviction from the UPDF and the Office of the prime minister. They harbor people of different tribes who have lived peacefully for many years without any tribal differences but Bafaki is trying to instill hatred and conflict in them based on tribal lines.
Just a brief background of the eviction
In 1966, Bunyoro kingdom leased out 50sq miles of land to the government of Uganda to set up the Kyangwali refugee settlement Camp for the Banyarwanda refugees. The area where the refugees were settled had settlements and gardens in the neighborhood belonging to the indigenous communities who were national. Both the nationals and refugees settled peacefully with the refugees buying food from the indigenous people until 1998 when the Prime minister came to fix boundaries of the settlement and the community.
According to the demarcation done by Technology Consult of Makerere headed by one Nathan Batungi in 1998, the sizes of land where as follows, 91 sq. kms to the settlement, 36 sq km to the community of Bukinda and 7 sq kms to Katikara community. There was no conflict as per that demarcation between the community and the refugees and the government.
In 2013 the Office of Prime Minister (OPM) started claiming ownership of the land that belongs to the nationals. This consequently led to the community being terrorized. The people of Bukinda were brutally and violently evicted from their land by police and the UPDF under the directive of Jean Kaliba the then RDC of Hoima district, Bafaki Charles the Principle settlement officer OPM, Solomon Osokon the then Region desk officer (RDO), Mugenyi David, the camp commandant Kyaka, the then DPC Hoima Kasangaki Augustine.
The community members were given an ultimatum of three hours to vacate the land amidst beatings and shootings from over 300 police and army officials. People’s houses were demolished, gardens destroyed and at least 27 people lost their lives women and children inclusive.
As a result, people fled to different areas including the neighboring Kagadi district. Communities were displaced, misery, disillusionment and frustration filled the communities. People who were not on this land by 1966 (regardless of whether your parents were on the land) were ordered to return to their indigenous communities for example a Mukiga to Kabale a Mukonzo to Kasese. The villages were surrounded by police and the army, people were ‘packed’ up in army lorries and ruthlessly ‘poured’ out like sand in different locations under the command of RDC Ambroze.
Since then, these communities have not had peace even after the minister of Relief, Disaster preparedness and Refugees, Hilary Onek ordered the refugees to be evacuated from the Nationals land following a directive from OPM.
People are being forced to register as refugees by giving them refugee cards. To be allocated land in one of the three village, one has to be registered as a refugee. This is done at gunpoint (soldiers go surround a village and all residents are forced to register as refugees. Those are registered as refugees are then allocated land in the new villages)
Ironically the OPM was providing shelter to refugees who had fled their countries because of the insecurity therein yet they were terrorizing the indigenous owners of the land. The people they were supposed to be protecting.
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