The High Court in Masaka will today (September 11, 2024) hear a court case against 80 people who allegedly refused to give way for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project.
The affected people did not agree with the level of compensation offered by the government. The case was filed by government through the Attorney General.
The affected people own, are beneficiaries or administrators of 41 parcels of land that are being acquired for the EACOP project. The land totals 102.5 acres.
EACOP is owned by TotalEnergies E&P with 62% shares, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) with 8% shares as well as the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments with 15% shares each.
TotalEnergies superintended over efforts to acquire 2,470 acres of land from 3,660 households in Uganda. The households had an estimated population of 24,770 people at the time the socio-economic surveys for the EACOP Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) were conducted.
The EACOP project’s compulsory land acquisition processes commenced in 2018 and are ongoing.
The land for the project is being acquired from households in ten districts in Uganda including Hoima, Kikuube, Kakumiro and Kyankwanzi. Others include Mubende, Gomba and Ssembabule. Yet others include Lwengo, Kyotera and Rakai.
The 80 people that were sued hail from Lwengo, Kyotera and Rakai districts. Government wants to possess their 41 parcels of land for EACOP but they claim they were offered low prices for their land.
Among those sued are 53 men and 26 women, many of whom are poor and vulnerable. The vulnerable ones include persons-with disabilities (PWD), the elderly and women.
Ismail Bwowe, a PWD who has been sued said he had refused to take the compensation that the pipeline people offered for his land because it is too little.
“Government has sued me today and they want me to pay their court costs? Is the government okay? How can a rich government and oil companies fail to pay us well and then want to take more from us? This is very unfair,” he said.
Dickens Kamugisha, the CEO of Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), which is providing legal support to the affected people said it was unfortunate that the Ugandan government and the oil companies that are working with them were using unconstitutional means to forcefully take poor people’s land.
“Article 26 of the Constitution is clear: while it allows government to compulsorily acquire citizens’ land for defined purposes, citizens are entitled to receive prompt, fair and adequate compensation in return. Courts should never be used as depositories for compensation rejected by citizens. Courts should adjudicate to allow citizens and government to arrive at a fair and adequate sum. If courts fail to do this and they receive compensation rejected by citizens, then courts err because they support government to take possession of citizens’ land prior to citizens accepting compensation, which violates Article 26,” he said.
Aminah Acola, one of the lawyers of the affected people, said they were deeply concerned by the government and its allies’ efforts to unjustly seize land and undermine the rights of EACOP project-affected persons.
“We commit to ensure that those impacted by this lawsuit receive the necessary legal assistance and representation to adequately defend their rights,” she said.
Yisito Kayinga Muddu, the coordinator of Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTFONE) that works with EACOP-affected people in Greater Masaka said the network had walked with EACOP-affected people from the valuation stage until they were compensated.
“We continue to work with the people, many of whom say that they did not receive prompt, fair and adequate compensation. We are saddened that instead of paying the people the compensation that they deserve, the people have been sued,” Muddu said.
