KAMPALA – The communities whose land and property are being compulsorily acquired for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Tilenga and Kingfisher oil projects have decried delayed justice by the judiciary for close to ten years now.
The EACOP, Tilenga and Kingfisher oil projects are operated by TotalEnergies E&P, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and the Ugandan government.
They claim that the government started by giving them only sh2.1 million per acre and increased to shs3.5 million upon their refusal which they have also declined to collect, saying that an acre of land in their area is valued at Shs15 million to Shs21 million.
The helpless oil project-affected persons were speaking to the press on Thursday.
Dickens Kamugisha, Chief Executive Officer of Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), an organisation that has been trying to ensure the victims access justice says that 2012 was the first biggest displacement in Uganda when over 7000 people including 3500 women and 1500 children were displaced from Kabaale, Hoima district.
Up to now, he says many of those communities still have complaints.
“They filed a case in the high court of Uganda in 2012 and up to now, that case has never been heard and completed. It started in Kampala High Court, pushed to Masindi High Court and now it is in Hoima High Court and we are now with the seventh judge.”
He narrated that in 2019, the Tilenga project-affected communities also filed a case in the high court of Uganda challenging the environmental and social impact assessment certificate issued by NEMA but up to now, the court has not determined that case.
These say they were shocked that the same judiciary gave a ruling in only six months in favour of the government in its 2020 case against them (communities in Tilenga) who had refused the compassion that had been referred to as unfair and inadequate.
The court allowed the government to deposit the compensation in court and proceed to evict the communities.
They say they filed a notice of appeal but the court turned a deaf ear for two years now without even fixing a hearing date.
In addition, they wrote to the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Judicial Service Commission on February 15, 2023 requesting for a meeting to enable the affected families to present their petition highlighting all the misery they face including threats of eviction, death of their animals, food insecurity and loss of land before compensation among others but have since waited for any response in vain.
“Attempts to go through the court have failed, attempts to get government attention have failed, what do you expect us to do?” they wondered.
Mr. Tundulu John, one of the Tilenga project-affected persons in Bulisa district, said “the money they’re giving us cannot buy land somewhere else unless you squeeze yourself in other ways.”
“We have nowhere to dig, our children are not schooling because the land was taken,” he added.
Mr. Mugisha Jelousy, another Tilenga project-affected person in Bulisa noted that their rights have since been violated wondering where to run to.
“We are not sabotaging government programs as they claim but we want our rights to be respected. Can you imagine the government valued a mature pineapple at sh100?”
In 2019, AFIEGO and the Guild Presidents Forum on Governance (GPFOG) filed a case in the High Court of Uganda challenging the legality of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) certificate that was issued by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to TotalEnergies E&P. The certificate was issued in absence of complete mitigation plans and yet the FSIA had identified over 30 risks including allowing oil activities in Murchison Falls National Park and others. Further, prior to issuance of the certificate, key provisions in environmental laws were violated, which put environmental conservation amidst the Tilenga project at risk.
However, hearing of this case has never been concluded yet the Tilenga project is ongoing.
Now, these persons have threatened to walk from their villages and protest at the offices of the Chief Justice, his Deputy and Principal Judge, if the judiciary fails to respect their constitutional rights in a month time.
Back in 2022, the European Parliament condemned EACOP as a project that is full of violations of human rights in Uganda and Tanzania linked to investments in fossil fuels projects.
The Parliament expresses grave concern about arrests, intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and NGOs working in the oil and gas sector in Uganda, and calls on the authorities to immediately release anyone arrested arbitrarily.
These called for an immediate halt, noting that more than 100,000 people are at imminent risk of displacement due to the EACOP project, with inefficient guarantees of adequate compensation.
They also asked authorities to adequately compensate people for lost property and land but also demanded the Ugandan authorities allow unhindered access to the zone covered by the project for civil society organizations, independent journalists, international observers and investigative researchers.
