The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
COMMENT | OBED K KATUREEBE | President Yoweri Museveni recently sent the untiring Director General of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Arthur Mugyenyi, to sort out the long-standing land dispute between private tree planters and cattle herders in Nsoowe Central Forest Reserve, in Maddu Sub County, Gomba District. It is alleged that there has been an avalanche of marauding herdsmen (balaalo), who have invaded the forest reserve and clashed with legitimate leaseholders who got leases from the National Forest Authority (NFA) to plant trees and, in due course, recover the depleting forest cover that Uganda badly needs. Initially, there were only 175 legitimately accepted families that have peacefully lived in that forest reserve, without causing any harm for ages.
President Museveni was spot-on to pick Mugyenyi for this task. He is a seasoned intelligence chief, known to be incorruptible, and carries with him thoroughness and resoluteness. Without a doubt, Mugyenyi will sort out the Nsoowe issue – but for how long? The new invaders are largely the marauding herdsmen, who were chased from Tanzania in 2013. Some settled in Sango Bay Estate land, which is government land located in Kyotera District. Sango Bay was recently leased to BIDCO Uganda Limited for extensive palm tree growing.
Primitive nomadic herdsmen are becoming a problem in Uganda. Not so long ago, they were becoming a political problem in northern Uganda. This was until the president gave executive orders for them to be removed forcefully by the UPDF and Uganda Police. The eviction process is still ongoing for some who keep running from one corner to the other in an attempt to dodge forceful eviction.
The same marauding herdsmen were evicted sometime back in Teso sub-region after politicians complained to the government. In 2010 the same herdsmen were evicted from Bulisa District as oil drilling began to take shape. As they get evicted from one place or the other, they have chosen to invade government lands, especially forests and wetlands. In all these forms of indiscipline, these stubborn herdsmen have continually tarnished the name of the president. He is continually accused of not reigning in these stubborn, roaming herdsmen. Which is not true. On the contrary, President Museveni has all his life discouraged nomadism and preached about settled, modern farming.
What is even more annoying is the fact that these are not poor people that lack the financial capacity to own land to settle on. One can’t own cows in the hundreds and then fail to have a chunk of land to live on and practice modern farming. Like President Museveni has written in one of the missives on the issue of roaming herdsmen. He talked about how he initiated the restructuring of the Mbarara-Masaka ranches in the late 1990s and gave thousands of landless herdsmen chunks of land. The majority of them sold the acquired pieces of land and went to Tanzania to graze in open, free lands until they were chased back to Uganda and now are a problem.
Uganda’s forest cover is rapidly depleting, with an estimated loss of over 122,000 to 200,000 hectares annually, largely driven by encroachment for subsistence agriculture, charcoal production and urban expansion. Encroachers, including illegal settlers and loggers, threaten both private and protected forestland, with shifting agriculture responsible for nearly 94% of this loss.
As a country we need a firm policy decision on roaming herdsmen. Foremost, these herdsmen need serious engagement on mindset change. Uganda is not growing in size. To the contrary, it is growing in numbers. The population is surging every passing year. Therefore, these people must be told to live a settled life and engage in productive life on small pieces of land.
We need serious deterring laws that will make nomadism and illegal movement of people and animals very punitive. Handling these roaming encroachers on the wetlands and forest reserves with kid gloves will not help. They are stubbornly refusing to embrace a settled lifestyle, where they can practice modern farming on small chunks of land, because they can be tolerated on some government land or communities that still have vast chunks of land that are uninhabited.
As practice has shown, even those communities that still have chunks of land uninhabited don’t tolerate roaming herdsmen in their communities, because they bring on board behaviours that are culturally alien. Besides, they tend to guard their ancestral lands so jealously, to a point of wanting to shed blood for it. That is why they have become a political issue in northern Uganda.
We need to design strong land policies aimed at ending nomadism, particularly in Uganda, focusing on transitioning pastoralists from communal, migratory grazing to settled, sedentary farming or commercial ranching. These initiatives should include registering land under freehold or leasehold tenure to replace customary systems, establishing grazing reserves and enacting presidential executive orders banning free-range livestock.
President Museveni once referred to drunkards as not only being a danger to themselves but also a danger to society as well. Similarly, roaming herdsmen are not only a danger to themselves; they are a hazard to the environment and the organized communities that live in settled lifestyles practicing modern farming methods.
The writer works with Uganda Media Centre
