The dilemma has befallen more than 1000 Bukinda evictees who had pitched camp at the office of the Kikuube resident district commissioner after being evicted from their ancestral land years back.

The land struggle arose in 2013 when OPM officials backed by the police and UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from a particular land accusing them of illegally settling on land marked out for refugee settlement.

President Museveni issued directives in 2016 and 2018 ordering the oppressed citizens back to their land, which has been ignored to date. They have formed an internally displaced persons’ Camp in the land of Kikuube district woman member of parliament.

In September 2013, OPM officials backed by the police and UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from a particular land accusing them of settling on what was labelled the Kyangwali Refugee settlement camp land illegally. The residents were forced to settle in camps in Kyeya village in Kyangwali sub-county under very poor conditions.

In 2016 and 2018, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ordered the evicted residents to be resettled on their ancestral land but to date; the concerned officials are yet to implement the directive. This prompted residents to pitch camp at the RDC’s office for over a year seeking his intervention to enforce the president’s directive to resettle them back on their ancestral land.

This week the owner of the land where they had sought shelter near the office of the Kikuube resident district commissioner ordered them to vacate. The landlord issued a notice directing them to vacate his land by July 1^st 2023 and he gave a copy to the RDC. Last evening he started implementing the directive.

The evictees started relocating in makeshifts to a land that has been temporarily offered to them by the Kikuube district woman member of Parliament Florence Natumanya.

The land is located in Kikuube town council a few kilometres from the Office of the RDC towards Kabwoya. The frustrated women, children and elderly are questioning whether the president’s directive means nothing and why he has failed to intervene in their matter even after several reports from the Leaders years later. 

The Kikuube resident district commissioner Amlan Tumusiime who was tasked to liaise with the Presidential private secretary Dr Kenneth Omona to resolve Bukinda issues has noted that he has humanly done everything possible in his power, in vain.

In February 2022, Over 8,000 people including women, children and the elderly decided to relocate to the office of the Resident District Commissioner of Kikuube where they have stayed for a little more than one year.