A resident shows the contested land
Pastoralists in Nakonyen village that borders Amudat and Moroto districts have halted the construction of the proposed Shillings 8 billion valley dam project. The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries had already cleared about two square kilometers of land to start constructing the valley dam.
However, the pastoralists grazing in the area stopped the project, saying they were never consulted on the land. Paul Aramtori, the head of 7,000 pastoralists grazing in the area, says that there are people’s gardens and settlements, where the government intends to set up the dam.
“If they want to construct the dam, let them come to us the community, and show them where they can construct the dam after all we didn’t ask the government for water because this particular area has plenty of water from the seasonal rivers,” he said.
Joseph Apananyang, another pastoralist said the fate of the people whose gardens are going to be occupied by the dam is not clear.
“This is just land grabbing, how can someone come and destroy our gardens in the name of dam construction if president Museveni sent them lets us talk to him he’s an understanding president and he does not allow people to be evicted anyhow,” he said.
Micheal Lote, the Moroto District National Resistance Movement-NRM chairperson blamed the ministry of Agriculture for not involving the local leaders in the project.
“These people work in isolation. They should have first called for a meeting with the leaders of Amudat and Moroto districts who could later go and meet the community before the project commences,” he said.
Betty Chelain, the Amudat district Woman Member of parliament, said that legislators from the two districts are not aware of the planned dam construction. “Much as the project is good but the community must be consulted which was not done by the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said.
Chelain said using soldiers to intimidate the locals whose land is being taken for the valley dam without compensating them will not work. Efforts to get a comment from Charlotte Kemigyisha, the Public Relations Officer in the Ministry of Water and Environment were futile as she could not answer repeated calls from our reporter to her known number.
-URN
