A months-long investigation into the Kingfisher oil project in Uganda finds disastrous consequences for the environment and human rights.
From a distance, anti-oil protests in Uganda might not make much sense. After all, the country has discovered "black gold." Big multinationals with world class expertise and global clout have offered to build a huge pipeline through neighbouring Tanzania, from which super-tankers will carry the oil to buyers around the world. The resulting $15 billion project, the government says, will make a poor landlocked country rich. Everybody wins, right?
Not exactly. Our seven-month investigation into the "Kingfisher" oil project uncovered a litany of abuses that are making local residents much worse off. They continue to call for the project to be halted.
Located along the shores of Lake Albert, the Kingfisher project and the larger Tilenga project - also the sight of serious human rights violations - are jointly owned by TotalEnergies (56.67%), Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (28.33%), and the Uganda National Oil Company (15%). Along with the Ugandan government, these companies are responsible for everything that happens at Kingfisher. These responsibilities include adhering to Ugandan law, respecting human rights, compensating those harmed by the project, and taking action to ensure accountability for violations. They are failing on all counts.
Kingfisher has been, and continues to be, the site of forced evictions, inadequate or non-existent compensation for land and other assets, coercion and intimidation in the land acquisition process, reduced standards of living and impoverishment, violations of labour rights, and sexual and gender-based violence.
Consider the story of Solomon* from the village of Kiina. Along with his family and neighbours, he was abruptly forced from his home by soldiers to make way for the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). "By 6am, the village was swarming with 30 to 40 military personnel," he says. "The soldiers declared: 'we don't want you here'. People protested that they had nowhere to go, prompting the army to start shooting. Some shots were fired into the air, others aimed to scare. The villagers began to flee. I immediately entered my house, told my wife we are leaving, closed the house and the shop, and directly left."
Joseph* from the village of Nzunsu B said CNOOC agents threatened him with losing everything if he persisted in his refusal to sign a "voluntary" compensation agreement for his land. "I was not happy and didn't want to sign at the beginning," he says. "But [CNOOC] told me that if I didn't sign, the land would be taken freely."
CNOOC has committed to adhere to International Finance Corporation Standards on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement, but the reality has been far different. Ugandans living near the Kingfisher project can be forgiven for wondering just who will benefit from the oil. With billions of dollars at stake, many fear state and elite capture of the profits by a government renowned for corruption. According to Henry*, whose family was evicted from their home, "we have one meal per day, the same for everyone in the family. Sometimes even that meal is missing, and we take only tea."
Community members who have sought jobs with CNOOC's subcontractors meanwhile report poor treatment, including excessive hours, low wages, hazardous working conditions, failure to provide employment contracts and pay promised wages, and demands for bribes to obtain jobs. Women described sexual threats, intimidation, or coercion by Ugandan soldiers in the Kingfisher project area. Climate Rights International also received reports of sexual violence by managers and superiors within oil companies operating at Kingfisher, including one involving a CNOOC employee. According to one woman, "if you refuse to sleep with your boss, you can be chased away very fast".
The development of the Kingfisher project has also led to the degradation of the natural environment, including through land, water, and air pollution. Fisherfolk report seeing oil slicks and dead fish in the lake, and a drastic reduction in fish in the project area. Two whistle-blowers who worked for the CNOOC subcontractor in charge of drilling activities told Climate Rights International that they were instructed to dump oil and chemical waste directly into the lake as well as on land, where it subsequently flows into the lake.
The entire project is a disaster for climate change. An analysis by the Climate Accountability Institute concluded that Uganda's oil would produce around 379 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 25 years. Peak annual emissions would be more than double the current annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania combined. Like all new oil and gas projects, its development is incompatible with the Paris Agreement's targets and a liveable planet.
African Arguments contacted the Ugandan president's office and CNOOC for comment on the allegations but did not receive a response.
A growing anti-oil movement
Large numbers of people regularly engage in public protests in Uganda, but face harsh repercussions from a government with a long record of repression and abuse. President Yoweri Museveni has barely hidden how he views things, declaring in 2016: "[That's] my oil. I won't allow anybody to play around with it."
In June 2024, Stephen Kwikiriza, an environmental observer with the Environmental Governance Institute, was abducted, interrogated, beaten, and disappeared for several days by Ugandan security forces. Kwikiriza had documented the environmental devastation and human rights violations suffered by his community from the Kingfisher project. He is just one of many campaigners against oil projects targeted by authorities.
Activists who make up the #StopEACOP campaign - referring to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) that would transport Uganda's oil through Tanzania - have long been arguing that the Ugandan government and oil majors behind the project should end it.
They may have no choice. Major banks and insurance companies based in Europe, Japan, and North America have publicly ruled out support for EACOP. It's time for all banks and insurance companies, whether in China, the Gulf States, Europe, Africa, or elsewhere, to join them in publicly rule out any continuing or further support for the project.
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While the Ugandan government is now desperately seeking additional finance, aside from South Africa's Standard Bank Group, few appear willing to take the reputational hit. Although his government has practically begged China to come to its rescue, Museveni appears to have come back empty-handed from a recent trip to the country.
Beijing has become increasingly sensitive to negative local public opinion as its brand has eroded across Africa due to predatory economic behaviour. Chinese authorities have to be careful in weighing their allegiance to an aging autocrat versus a young population that is likely to remember which side it was on. One only has to look at recent events in Bangladesh to realise just how fragile even seemingly stable autocratic systems can be.
The Kingfisher and Tilenga projects, as well as EACOP, are not only a dangerous carbon bomb, but also a human rights disaster. As the world faces the crisis of climate change, international donors, financial institutions, and multinational companies considering investing in Uganda should focus on renewable energy instead of oil and gas.
The Kingfisher project is bad for people, bad for the environment, and very bad for climate change. CNOOC and TotalEnergies should clean up, pack up, and go home.
*names changed
Brad Adams is the executive director of Climate Rights International.
