Members of parliament from the opposition side led by the Leader of opposition Hon. Mathias Mpuuga have challenged the president's decision of fencing off land in Acholi subregion which is said to have been encroached upon by the balalo people who are currently grazing their cattle on people's agricultural farms.
The president previously, ordered all balalos with land to fence it and asked those without to vacate the said land immediately within a period of 3 weeks.
Speaking to parliamentary journalists yesterday, the leader of opposition in parliament Hon. Mathias Mpuuga expressed concerns over the decision which he says violates the traditional cultural values of land ownership in the region.
“the order by general Museveni that those who have land should fence it off is illegal, irregular and has no legal space. First of all the people of Acholi have complained that this is their customary land and we are alive to court orders to the effect that this is customary land which cannot be personal by anybody and therefore whatever they are doing in fencing it is irregular and illegal.” He said
“its immediate and urgent concern that the cattle keepers are grazing their cattle on people's crops. They are invading people’s gardens and feeding their animals on their crops as part of the plot to scare them away and to make them even more desperate. We're demanding for quick answers from the minister from the executive as to what is prompting their inaction over the invasion of people's gardens by the same people that tend to fence off this land.” He added
In addition, Mpuuga also tasked the government to explain its delay in compensating the affected communities in the region where lots of their property was raided during the Lord's resistance army.
“The new cattle occupants are falling into vacant land but this was land owned and still owned by the Acholi, they used to graze cattle on this land. We are demanding for accountability on the cattle that was stolen officially from Acholi land and why it has taken this long to return the cattle that was stolen from the people of Acholi,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Hon. Santa Okot who is the Shadow Minister for Special Regions expressed her disbelief regarding the president's executive orders which she said has failed to yield positive results in the past.
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“when these Balalos went to northern Uganda by then and took over all these areas of the 9 districts, the president himself came out with executive orders after a series of our complaints about Balalos, about this destruction of the environment and the karamojong cattle raiders who were killing people in the districts of mainly ago and then kitgum. When he came out with the executive order especially on the Balalo, it was on the 19th of May of this year that he gave orders that all these Balalos should leave northern Uganda, to us it was like he gave this paper for public consumption but under it he wasn't serious about the executive orders.” She stressed
At the same juncture, Mpuuga also notified how their team will continue with their ongoing strike until government responds to all their needs presented last month on the floor of parliament
“so we want to reinstate as the opposition here, that we still stand by our earlier stance that even if the house is called tomorrow we shall not be part of it until we have consequentially received possible and acceptable response to these issues and be able to scrutinies the efficacy of response for the comfort of the families and assurance of the nation that these violations will seize and therefore there is commitment.” He said
Among their requirements that need government’s response include the missing persons, detention of Ugandans for long period of time without trial, trying civilians in military court martial which is against the constitutional Court, targeting of Moslem faith in matters related to criminality and predominance in a number of cells, human rights violation in fishing communities, shrinking civic space to include media freedoms, freedom of assembly which are yet to be responded to.
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