AMURIA —Leaders from Imoratok Clan have petitioned Hon. Judith Nabakooba, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, seeking her intervention in a matter where they accuse Orungo Catholic Church of grabbing their land located at Morungatuny in Ococia Parish, Morungatng Sub-County in Amuria District.
In their petition dated 28th May 2024, received by the Ministry of Lands on 29th May 2024, the petitioners contend that in 1944, their forefathers and fathers donated portions from their land (40 to 50 acres) to Orungo church to use it for its various purposes. However, as time went on, the Church decided to act contrary to what was expected, thus leading to this grievance.
“Upon receiving the donated land, the Church fenced it off and established a Church, Health Centre, and Primary School on the same up to date. The Church and the Imoratok Clan had lived peacefully from 1944 until 2010 when Fr. Ipurale was transferred to the area. He started the process of surveying the land donated to the Church, which led to the encroachment on all neighboring families’ land, equivalent to about 60 hectares (140 acres).”
This survey was done without the consultation of the rightful neighbors of the land, and the Area Land Committee also came up with minutes without putting out notices of the intended survey to the neighbors. “The Church then applied for a title at Amuria District Land Board, and it was only then that the Petitioners got to know and filed a case vide Case No. 27 of 2014 at High Court of Uganda at Soroti.”
Later, the court passed a judgment in favor of the Catholic Church, despite the fact that the Judge didn’t visit the locus as required in law to determine the exact part of the land that was in contention. “While the clan does not dispute having gifted the Church some land, the land now being claimed by the Church is more than 100 acres, considered suit land. However, the Court could not separate the gifted land from the land belonging to the Imoratok Clan, which is about 40-50 acres.”
As a result of the above actions, several families are threatened by the Church evictions and are currently being intimidated by the Resident District Commander (RDC) and District Police Commander (DPC), who are arresting some of them as they cultivate their land despite the existence of a pending appeal in court. “The matter of the boundary is not yet fully resolved. The Church is using the office of the RDC and DPC to grab land and displace the Imoratok Clan members, who will have nowhere else to go and have always derived their sustenance from the same land since time immemorial.”
The actions of the Church, the RDC, and DPC are so high-handed, and the members of the Imoratok Clan no longer feel safe in, at, and around their homes. “What they need from the Minister: These have therefore requested the Minister to intervene and have the matter reviewed urgently through addressing a petition to the Chief Justice seeking to have the matter reviewed and addressed urgently.”
“That Hon. Minister writes to the RDC, DPC, and the Church to stop immediate intimidation and harassment of the people of Imoratok Clan who are utilizing their land and have always derived sustenance from the same.” On top of that, they also want the Minister to write to the Commissioner Survey and Mapping seeking her to appoint a Surveyor to do a joint survey to ascertain the size of the donated and fenced-off land by the Church and the area encroached on.
The Clan leaders claim to have been the owners and occupants of different parcels of land situated at Morungatuny sub-county, now Ogolai sub-county, Ococia parish in Amuria District, which land is held and owned under customary practices in the area. “It was around 1944 when late Etengu Honorat (the father of one of the petitioners) granted permission to the Catholic Church to establish a church, later a health center and primary school, on approximately 50 acres of land belonging to the deceased Honorat Etengu, in accordance with the customary practices of the Imoratok Clan of the Iteso tribe, to promote religious education and health activities in the area, not for business or freehold ownership.”
However, around 2009/2010, the respondents/defendants, in total abuse of the law, encroached on the appellants’/plaintiffs’ land by surveying additional land approximated at 87 acres to the benefit of a non-existent legal entity called St. Peters Canisius Catholic Church Orungo, without any regard to the appellants’/plaintiffs’ interest and claims of ownership, forcing the appellants/ plaintiffs to file this suit.
