[UAH] Land battles: Tororo residents caught between a rock and a hard place- A LOT OF LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THIS ARTICLE!!!
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70-year-old Francis Olinga, a peasant in Ngelechom Village in Osukuru Sub-county, Tororo District, says he has more than 10 acres of land. photo by nelson wesonga.
Posted Sunday, July 14 2013 at 01:00
IN SUMMARY
Land matters. With Osukuru Rubongi Land Advocacy Organisation on one hand and an investor on the other, the residents find themselves in a tight corner; the money being dangled and the prospect of not having enough land for cultivation, is mind-boggling. Sunday Monitor's Nelson Wesonga spoke to some residents about their concerns.
At 70, Francis Olinga, a peasant in Ngelechom Village in Osukuru Sub-county, Tororo District, should be having peace of mind. His seven grown-up children have left his homestead, having found jobs in Kampala. He did his part by seeing them through school even though in his time, he never went as far as they have.
In May, a team of three people from a Community-based Organisation (CBO) called Osukuru Rubongi Land Advocacy Organisation (Orldao) paid him a visit. "They said they wanted to help me and other residents to negotiate for better compensation of our land which the government wants for a fertilizer project," he says.
Orldao, he adds, convinced him to sign a consent form that says the CBO would process for him a freehold title for his land.
The land is currently customarily held/communally owned. In case he will want to sell or rent out his 10-acre piece of land, the agreement stipulates that he would have to agree with Orldao on the price to charge the potential investor. "The form adds that I would need Orldao's written consent to sell or rent out my land. Orldao would also deduct up to 10 per cent of the amount I would have received for the land," says Olinga.
Olinga further says the team spoke in English and would now and then use what they called legal language, confusing him in the process. He only came to realise he had more or less signed off on his land rights when he later took time to read all the six clauses of the consent agreement. It is also possible that since one of his village-mates refused to sign Orldao's form because he wants to deal directly with any potential investor, Olinga now realises the disadvantage of his own hastiness.
The 'sweet' investor
Francesica Omalla, 53, who owns three acres, says she would want to deal directly with any investor who might be interested in her land. "What if I urgently need money and yet Orldao's officials are nowhere to be found? The investor should approach me directly," she says.
The sub-county in which Olinga, and Omalla live, has been earmarked for a $200 million (Shs520 billion) fertiliser factory because their area has a reserve of an estimated 230 million tonnes of phosphates.
According to the Energy and Mineral Development ministry, the project will cover 27 square kilometres, mostly in Osukuru and parts of Rubongi Sub-county. The area was in the 1960s and 1970s home to Tororo Industrial Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (Ticaf), which unfortunately collapsed in 1978 because the then prevailing political instability made it hard to import spare parts.
Buoyed by the government's pro-foreign investors policy, investors from as far as Asia picked interest in the project.
For instance, the Gujarati State Fertilisers Company picked interest in 1995. There are claims that an unnamed Chinese company has picked interest in the same project and is just waiting for Gujarati's Ugandan partner, Nilefos Mineral Ltd (NML), exploration licence to expire so that it could apply for the same. Some of the residents claim the Chinese are using one of the local leaders to sway the people into supporting a Chinese bid for the project.
It is this heightened interest by investors in the area that has made Olinga and other residents to realise there is something very valuable that even Orldao would want to cash on it.
Omalla says she is willing to rent out only a half of her acreage. "Where would I go with my 10 children if I rented out all the land?" she queries. She adds that since her land is just one kilometre from the Tororo-Busia highway, she would consider renting out an acre at Shs50 million per annum.
According to the Energy ministry, "an assessment by the developer, pending verification by the Chief Government Valuer, indicates that the compensation of claimants will require approximately $40 million" (Shs104 billion).
Olinga says he is not against the project.
"I welcome it. However, I would rather rent out the land instead of selling it," says Olinga. "Because I inherited it from my father. I would be happier if I knew that on the expiry of the contract with the investor, my children shall get back the land." He hopes the investor will co-exist with the resident because; many like him; have over the years built permanent structures and have 'nowhere else to go'.
They also have herds of cattle, goats and pigs not to mention the onions, tomatoes, beans, ground nuts, maize, sweet potatoes, cassava, jack fruit, oranges and avocado in their gardens.
Critics say Orldao wants to broker the deals between the landowners and the investor so that it can get a tidy commission. Charles Ajulu, the vice chairperson of Orldao, however, says: "We told the people that even if they do not want us to handle their land issues, they should be wise… why sell your land so cheaply?" He, however, adds that they do not want to hear cases in which the landowners are paid peanuts for their land, use up the money and then start lamenting that they were cheated.
The dilemma
Ajulu also defends the decision to take 10 per cent from each person who sells his or her land to an investor. "When we talked to the people, every one agreed it was fine," Ajulu says. The 10 per cent is meant to cater for operational costs such as processing documents, titling the land, legal, accounting and environmental costs and to help open up a bank account.
It is Orldao that petitioned the High Court in Mbale in 2008 to challenge Nilefos Minerals Ltd (NML), a company associated with the Madhavanis, from illegally evicting them from the land.
NML claimed then that the people were squatters on the land. However, Olinga says 10 per cent is too high bearing in mind that the CBO will get the same percentage from each of the estimated 6,000 residents in the project area.
His is not a lone voice.
On June 3, a group of 14 LC I chairpersons petitioned Tororo District Council over the issue
"In reference to Orldao's consent agreement… clauses 4, 5 and 6… do not address… rights to freedom and ownership of land," said the G14. "…following the response of the affected persons… and support they had given to Orldao, which was obliged to enhance proper coordination, it is to our dismay that it isn't the case. We call for the halting and calling to order… [of] Orldao's activities…"
Louis Odoi, the chairperson of Tororo Industrial Chemical and Fertilisers Ltd (Ticaf) village, told the Sunday Monitor on June 25 that the local council I leaders were still discussing with Orldao the possible amendments to the consent forms.
A resident from Aburi, who requested not to be named because he could be victimised, says the residents are now even more anxious. "We are not certain it [the amended consent form] will come because they [Orldao] are scared of the cost of going back to the ground for the second time. Since they are scared of that cost, we are also not sure…"
10% talk
However, John Onagari, the chairman of Aburi B Village, says the LCs were of the view that they put in place a 10 per cent once-off payment instead of leaving it open-ended.
Tororo County Member of Parliament Geoffrey Ekanya says the residents should appreciate what Orldao has done for them.
"The residents authorised Orldao to sue Nilefos. Lawyers put in substantial amounts of money, otherwise no person would be in that area," says Ekanya.
Unlike her and Olinga, Silver Enyadu, 67, says there is no harm in getting Orldao's consent.
"Those negotiating with Nilefos should be careful. We are members of Orldao. [Membership is mandatory for all the people in the project area]. So, getting the consent of Orldao is good," says Enyadu, who owns three acres.
Though Orldao says the people are free to handle their land issues by themselves, presently there are vigilantes on Orldao's pay whose brief it is to scare off any body suspected to be an investor scouting for land. This reporter on Thursday, June 20, witnessed some vigilantes encircle Olinga's son's car at the Osukuru Sub-county headquarters.
The son, Ekwaro, had gone to the sub-county headquarters to meet a local leader. The vigilantes only backed off when the local leader, whose face is familiar to the vigilantes, calmed them down.
Apollo Yeri Ofwono, a former Member of Parliament for Tororo Municipality, thinks otherwise.
"I do not know how they arrived at the 10 per cent. If you are assisting people… you do not reach midway and start behaving like a hyena. We were just an advocacy for the people. Now if the people have won, let them enjoy," says Ofwono. Under the aegis of Orldao, the residents petitioned court, which blocked Nilefos's attempt to evict them.
Therefore, to get the surface rights, Nilefos will have to compensate those people who are willing to either sell or rent out their land. Mid this month, the company claimed through a local daily that the landowners had finally given it surface rights, a statement the will-be project-affected persons contest. Some of the people say NML is so far just promising each household a "disturbance allowance" of Shs1 million even though the recipients would not have to sign for this money.
Sam E. Okware, NML's area officer, says the disturbance allowance is meant to cover for the inconvenience the company caused the residents in 2008, when it tried to force them off the land.
"The government had claimed the land belongs to it. Some people were inconvenienced when Nilefos came in. The Constitution says land belongs to the people. That is how the disturbance allowance came up," says Okware.
Idle youth earning
At the same time, NML is reportedly paying idle youth, who are not bona fide residents, as little as Shs50, 000 to sign Nilefos's surface rights forms. The youth reportedly take on the names of the residents and sign against them to give the impression the landowners have been compensated and are ready to relocate.
Okware, however, refutes claims that the company is bribing people who do not own land to sign surface rights forms are false. "The allegations are false. The people peddling them have their motives [that are unknown to me]. I have been participating in the exercise to ensure people get fair compensation," Okware told this newspaper on June 25.
NML exploration licence is due to expire this month. Before it eventually does, more and more residents are now caught between a rock and a hard place, with the investor on the one side and Orldao on the other.
In retrospect, Olinga says: "I should not have signed the form that says I need Orldao's permission to sell or rent out my land. I would rather give Orldao about Shs50,000 per acre I rent to an investor.
- STILL SURVIVING THE MAFIAS,LIVING IN FEAR AND PAIN,BEING HUNTED LEFT,RIGHT AND CENTER BY MAFIAS PLUS THEIR NETWORKS.
- ON 29/JANUARY/2004 DURING RADIO ONE EKIMEEZA TALKSHOW AT CLUB OBBLIGATTO I REVEALED THE PRESENCE OF MUSEVENI CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION BOUGHT FROM NORTH KOREA AND IRAN-THAT WAS HIDDEN UNDER GULU AIRPORT HUNKER AND THE UNITED NATIONS GRABBED,DESTROYED AND TOOK AWAY THE REMAINING ONES TO UNKNOWN DESTINATION-THIS IS ONE REASON WHY PRESIDENT MUSEVENI AND HIS MAFIAS CAN NEVER-NEVER-I SAY NEVER FORGIVE ME SINCE I EXPOSED AND SPOILED THEIR DEADLY DESTRUCTIVE AGENDA FOR NORTHERN UGANDA!!!
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