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Uganda: Bagunga to Fight Balaalo Court Injunction
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The Monitor (Kampala)
7 March 2008
Posted to the web 6 March 2008
Francis Mugerwa
Buliisa
BAGUNGA leaders have resolved to petition High Court to lift an injunction over the eviction of pastoralists popularly know as Balaalo.
The leaders want the pastoralists out of what they say is Bagunga communal land, before the new land law is passed and operationalised.
"The injunction has over prevailed and should therefore be lifted," the district chairperson Mr Fred Lukumu told Daily Monitor by telephone on Monday.
The amendment to the 1998 Land Act criminalises illegal land evictions and offers an opportunity to the sitting tenants to be consulted before the landlord sells off the land.
The leaders now want the emigrant pastoralists out of the disputed land before the new law is in place. They say it will be hard to evict the Balaalo when the Land Bill is passed by Parliament.
In June, 2007 the pastoralists who were facing eviction from Buliisa to the neighboring Kiboga District on the orders of the government, petitioned court for an injunction till their suit over the claim of ownership of land is disposed of.
Court instituted an injunction in their favour and halted forceful relocation of the pastoralists.The pastoralists were embroiled in a bitter land and ethnic conflict that left over 10 people, including the area MP Mr Stephen Mukitale Biraahwa, injured and property worth millions of shillings destroyed.
District leaders want court to lift the injunction to pave way for the eviction of the pastoralists. "Many people are running out of patience. Their (pastoralists') continued stay has caused tension and fear that communal land has been grabbed," Mr Lukumu said.
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The Bagungu and the Balaalo are fighting for the ownership of a 40 square mile piece of land which covers the villages of Waiga, Kataleba, Bugana and Kichoke.
Whereas the Bagungu claim to own the land communally, the herdsmen claim they bought the land from respective landlords at a cost of Shs800m.
The pastoralists are also accused of grazing cattle in theBagungu's cotton fields, an allegation they deny.
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