Locals say, their land was valued as early as 2018 and they were asked to halt any activities on it in preparation for surrendering it to the investor, but that unfortunately, the investor in 2021 cleared the land and started planting palm oil plants on it and last year, the harvesting of the plants started.
Buvuma islanders who surrendered their land to create space for palm oil growing by the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) have been given a ray of hope when Buvuma Constituency Member of Parliament, Robert Migadde Ndugwa disclosed that sh10bn for their compensation has been acquired.
Islanders in the villages of Bubanzi, Kakyanga, Bwaka, Kibondwe, Bukiyindi and others have been up in arms with NOPP since the palm oil growing kicked off in 2021, on land acquired from them with promises for payment to follow later.
When NOPP started business before their compensation, the islanders sought government intervention to prevail on the palm growing authorities to compensate them, adding that they had completed valuation and audit processes, formalities preceding compensation according to MOUs signed.
Land Grabbers Beat UP 111yr-Old Widow, Demolish, Set Her House on Fire
Subsequent tug-of-wars that were created rooted in delayed compensation and other irregularities led to a snail speed of the palm oil growing, and in effect diminishing the hopes of ever realizing the promised poverty alleviation and job creation, with the area MP Migadde Ndugwa put to task to lobby for the residents’ compensation.
Announcing procurement of the compensation money to the tune of sh10bn, Migadde guided that the process will begin with compensating people on whose land the initial planting started, noting that they have for long had nowhere to derive a means of survival by way of food after being deprived of their land.
“The Ministry of Finance has given assurance that the money is coming this month and, purely on humanitarian grounds, we shall begin with people in this category”, Migadde said.
During the 2021 general elections, NRM political aspirants including President Yoweri Museveni and several lower party cadres performed poorly which was attributed to the unsettled compensation question. Museveni performed poorer than the National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.
In the NRM party mobilization tour code-named Buganda for Museveni and pioneered by NRM Buganda MPs led by their caucus chairperson, Robert Migadde Ndugwa, held in Buvuma recently, the locals frankly told off the party leaders that if the land compensation question is not addressed, NRM and President Museveni should not count on their votes.
Locals say, their land was valued as early as 2018 and they were asked to halt any activities on it in preparation for surrendering it to the investor, but that unfortunately, the investor in 2021 cleared the land and started planting palm oil plants on it and last year, the harvesting of the plants started.
“What can we do, the palm oil plants which were planted on our land years back without compensation have now started yielding. Who should harvest them, is it the investor or ourselves who have not been compensated for our Land?” they wondered in an interaction with the media recently.
However, with the release of the sh10bn compensation money, tensions are expected to scale down.
