The National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials and the Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF) have camped in Kangombe Central Forest Reserve in Kibaale District to protect the remaining part of the natural resource.
NFA officials said that the permanent camping into the reserve was meant to stop further destruction of the remaining part of the forest affected by the influx of encroachers, who during the political season had turned it into settlement and farms for cultivation.
Martin Mwodi, the NFA Manager in charge of Budongo Range says 96 per cent of the reserve has gone which expose Ugandans to Climate Change conditions including prolonged droughts, rising temperatures and changing rain patterns among others.
The deployment comes ahead of the long awaited boundary opening of the reserve as per the High Court directive in which NFA was stopped to evict the encroachers until boundary opening is carried out.
In 2013, High Court Judge Alphonse Owiny Dollo issued the interim order in the case of 128 people suing NFA and government until final determination of the case.
According to Mr Mwodi, the judge had directed to maintain a status quo but encroachers have since destroyed the reserve from 60 per cent to the current state of 96 per cent depletion.
Uziah Ndyanabo, the NFA manager in charge of Kagadi Beat says; “The court order only applied to the 128 people who dragged us (NFA) to court. However there are now thousands of new people who attribute their entry and stay in the forest to the court order which amount to misinterpretation and abuse of the court order.
This is meant that even those who did not have a toilet by the time the court order was issued they are not supposed to build one today.”
Ndyanabo reveals that the men in Uniform have been deployed in Bagdad, Kyaterekera and Kamukole near River Muzizi side. Fredrick Atugonza the NFA Supervisor for Kagombe Beat said the deployment of forces follows realisation that hundreds had swarmed the forest during the 2016 general electoral period and have been clearing the forest to open up gardens and also for settlement illegally.
“They had cut down trees in a large area estimated at over 50 acres because these people have a lot of energy. They slash burn and immediately begin planting without necessarily ploughing” explained Atugonza.
During a tour of Kagombe forest last week in April by Environment Journalists under their body Water and Environment Media Network Uganda (WEMNET-U), it has been established that soldiers and Environment police officers are deployed in three camps surrounding and in the middle of the to stop fresh clearance of the forest and evict the new encroachers.
Officials said the camps comprise of 10 UPDF officers, Two Environment Police officers, Forest supervisors and Patrol men.
What next for the “Encroachers”
A few meters away from the assumed boundary of Kagombe Forest now lives the former encroachers who upon sight of the UPDF chose to voluntarily vacated the forest while some others are still vacating the reserve one by one which is now a no go area.
The encroachers now live in makeshift structures made out of Tarpaulins and shrubs dotted around the boards of the forest.
“We talked to the owner of this land here and we paid him 200,000 for us to build a temporary house here until NFA allows us to go back to our land in the forest” narrates Mutungi Anete
When asked how they obtained the land, Mutungi alleged that there is a man who she only knows as chairman from whom her husband bought five acres at 1 million shillings last year in October 2015.
“My husband paid him the money and the following day we went together and the chairman showed us where the land starts and ends but there were no neighbors by that time and we also began clearing the land to build a house and also grow maize and cassava for food. We came from Kyegegwa and we can’t go back now until NFA allows us back “narrates Mutungi as she soothes the baby.
Mutungi is not alone but over 500 former encroachers have been evicted from the forest and will not go back because they have voluntarily demolished even the permanent iron sheet roofed houses and are now leaving in temporary shelters at the peripheral of Kagombe forest.
“I cannot promise that we shall leave the forest tomorrow or next week not even next month because the forest is still under much threat from attackers” said Ndyanabo Uzia.
Challenges
The deployment has however sparked off an array of accusations against NFA officials. The UPDF and Police. The encroachers alledge that in the process of law enforcement, the officials raped women, stole property and assaulted them. Bikorwa Philip, one of the representatives of the 128 people in the case before court alleges enchroachers have on several occasions been assaulted and their food stolen.
“Those NFA people when they come for operation they beat us and steal our cows and goats. We have reported to police but the police have not been helpful” says Bikorwa.
However the Kibaale District police Commander Bosco Arop described the allegations as false and baseless but intended to simply weaken and malign NFA and law enforcement officers.
“We committed time and conducted a thorough investigation into those allegations. We went to Bagdad a no go zone for NFA last week to a shop where some people claimed that the NFA staff had looted items and the shop owner told us that nothing was looted and his shop was still intact” Arop said.
He says that all the encroachers who were evicted but had food in the forest ready for harvest cooperate with NFA staff and are escorted to harvest their food to ensure that they dot instead harvest other peoples food.
Origin of the Encroachers.
Whereas there is free movement and settlement of Ugandans legally anywhere, authorities in Kabaale district which is predominantly for Banyoro and Batooro, investigations have proved that the encroachers originate from Burundi, Democratic republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kasese, Kanungu and Rukungiri, according to Arop.
“Initially they were about 128 but they are now over 5000, unfortunately some of them are criminals who committed offenses elsewhere and settled in the forest to hide. We recently identified two murderers who had escaped police bond from Kanungu and Kamwenge” he adds .
Asked about the origin of these encroachers, Kibaale district resident district Commissioner (RDC) Samuel Kisembo Araali said;
“Those people in the forest have been coming from all over Uganda and the neighbouring countries and have given us a lot of headache security wise because they are not properly identified.”
Kisembo further explains that most of them swarmed the forest during the campaigns of 2015/16 when everybody was buried in the politics and the laws had somehow been relaxed but vowed to work with NFA to restore order.
“They should not think that the forest is not part of Uganda, there are laws governing them and I am willing to support NFA to ensure that the forests remain forests not gardens or homes because I know the effects of Climate change” Said kisembo.
The deployment comes on the heels of the just released state of the Uganda forest report 2010-15 which shows that the Uganda’s forests are faced with continuous worsening trends through encroachment, deforestation and forest degradation through conversion of forest land to other land uses such as agriculture and urbanization and rampant felling of trees for timber, firewood and charcoal burning on private and government land, rampant fires and livestock damage on forest plantations.
The report shows that Uganda the rate of deforestation has increased to an estimated 200,000 ha of forests annually up from 900,000 hectares (2008-2013) partly due to weak institutions among other causes.
By Joshua Mutale