Uganda turns a blind eye to Kaweri evictees
A Kaweri woman evictee is expelled from her home for the second time.
A woman, who had already been evicted from her land in 2001, together with some 4,000 people, to make way for the Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd. - a 100% subsidiary of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) based in Hamburg, Germany - has been expelled from her land again.
The Ugandan woman, called Joyce Namakula, has been evicted from land that the Government of Uganda and Neumann Kaffee Gruppe have always claimed was part of the compensation for the Kaweri evictees. What’s more, the land Ms. Namakula has been now evicted from, was acquired with money from her own pocket.
"I have been expelled twice without compensation. My life has deteriorated considerably as a result. We had a good life, animals and fruit trees, but the eviction destroyed everything” Ms. Namakula stresses, while speaking of her ordeal.
After the 2001 eviction , she started a new life in Kambuye together with her children by buying two acres of land and planting different crops such as, potatoes, bananas, maize and groundnuts. Yet, she was again evicted from her new land alongisde others, by a man called Kaweesi, who claims that he owns the land. The ease with which this land was seized from her, suggests there might be many other Kaweri evictees that could have been evicted for the second time.
“This is a scandal. The government of Uganda doesn’t protect its people against forced eviction. The second eviction of Ms. Namakula is evidence that an evictee in the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe case was not settled and did not have security of tenure on her new land,” comments Valentin Hategekimana, Africa coordinator at FIAN International.
The mediation proceedings towards an amicable settlement, ordered by the court on 1 July, 2019 are still ongoing as the Court has extended them until 16 December. So far, the Government of Uganda has offered an amount that has been rejected by the evictees, as it is far from being sufficient. “It is unbelievable that Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, which has been using the evictees’ land, by producing coffee and reaping the benefits, did not put on the table any suggestion for compensation for the damage caused by the eviction, or offer the means to get a new land for the evictees to start a new life,” regrets Hategekimana.
For more information, please contact hategekimana@fian.org
