UGANDANS FACE EVICTION FROM FISHING VILLAGES ON THE SHORES OF LAKE ALBERT

People staying around the lake shores were told by the government to migrate. It was on Wednesday afternoon when Raiporondi Kyanda was on radio Hoima, he was announcing on the radio that people who stay near the lake shores should vacate the area. He said that there are sixty-seven places where people would be evicted. There and then the people started complaining about the announcement.

On Tuesday the 26 of May 2020, the policemen came; they were sent by the government of Uganda to evict people from lake shore villages. These villages include; Kina, Kachunde, Kitebere, Songarawa, Koswenti among others and it was well announced that Nsonga and Senjojo are allowed to continue to serve as residences. But some people are complaining that their Clans and Tribes stay near the lakes, for instance Tubenanya Patrick of 40 year of age who said to the policemen that he will not leave the lakeshores because he was born there and his people are near that place.

On the same day, people started migrating after the policemen told them to vacate within three days. Some people came from very distant places and others grew up in these fishing villages. To make matters worse, for those with businesses they were told to close-up their businesses without removing anything, those with domestic animals were looted by unknown thugs. Yet they were also told not to destroy their houses.

Dead bodies collected as a boat with evicted residents capsize | Source: Virungapost

The reason for this action by the government is because they were killing other people who would be on their way to the lakeside, they were also catching young fish and during this period of Coronavirus, they were told not to go far but instead they would not listen. Some would bring people from D.R.C to Uganda. The other reason is that water was taking some houses and people living around the shores when floods occurred.

The places the government allowed people to continue staying was simply because they have developed roads and people can travel using automobiles. Yet the ones who were chased from the above fishing villages, decided to migrate with their properties to these shores that the government allowed people to settle in. But the majority are in pain and sorrow because they have nowhere to go and are going to start life again from zero more especially the Acholi and the Alur. During their journey both the people and the animals were crying because most of them were killed.

The government told the people that they should go back to their original places because they were not born in the lake. They allowed them to use boda bodas as a means of transportation. And it is revealed that many of them came from Kituuti and Bukinda. Unfortunately, there are some people who were born around the shore like the Bagungu and Alur among others.

Although the government is chasing people from the lake side and these people complaining that they were born there is not true because even the Bagungu originated from a place called Bulisa, far in the interior.