If government maintains its threat of demolishing houses in ten villages in this area, these and more than a dozen primary schools will be no more by the beginning of 2017.

That is what an advert by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) published in the New Vision on Monday signed by the executive director, Dr Tom Okurut, means. The notice gives occupants of compartments 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 up to December 26 to leave.

“Failure to comply… this Authority … shall take all necessary steps against you including forceful eviction and prosecution…” reads the notice.

For the record, I am not an occupant of any of the above-mentioned compartments. I am just a neighbor, but also the representative for these poor people. Although hiding under Nema, government wants this land for four major infrastructure projects: Bukasa inland port, Standard Gauge Railway, Southern bypass and some electricity extensions.

In fact, this land belongs to National Forestry Authority (NFA), which failed to protect it against encroachment. There is a big problem at NFA. Uganda loses about 9,000sq hectares of forest cover every year and we are only replanting 3,000sq hectares officially. So sleepy are the administrators at NFA that even their headquarters in Bugolobi are being claimed by an Asian.

It is not surprising that these fellows allowed massive encroachment on this land in question commonly known as Namanve central forest reserve. And this encroachment began about six years ago. The occupants, who came during broad daylight, have taken almost all this land and established nearly 10 villages, complete with councils.

Trouble is that those who grabbed the land have since sold and left. Some of the recent buyers don’t even know the history of this place because, in some places, it is difficult to distinguish between NFA and private land.

And to make matters worse, the grabbers did it in the name of Mr Yoweri Museveni. They would establish an office first, plaster it with Museveni campaign posters and descend on the nearby land, parcel it and begin selling. Some of the land has changed hands like five times.

I have been told Mr Museveni has issued an order to Gen Kale Kayihura to drive away occupants of this land. The notice in the newspaper is, therefore, part of the preparatory work.

I met the Standard Gauge Railway working group from the ministry of works and explained to them why people should be compensated before they leave. They told me compensating people will be breaking both the Nema and NFA acts.

So, any time, you may hear of clashes in Bukasa because the many people that have settled here have nowhere to go. Some good-hearted people have told me government can compensate for the developments on the land before asking people to go away.

And I think this is what may stop the bloodshed. I have been told Museveni has also authorized establishment of a military barracks here to help during the eviction exercise.

Interestingly, during the last campaigns, the leadership in some of these villages stopped me from campaigning there. If I did, they argued, government would evict them. Now hundreds of them are streaming to my home every day crying for help.

I had earlier told them Museveni has no friends and he would evict them after elections. The humane part in me is telling me that I must do everything possible to protect them against an uncaring regime that has butchered people in Kasese, jailed a cultural leader and closed Makerere University.

And there is a solution. In Ethiopia, the government, with all its shortcomings, has a resettlement plan. Principally, governments are supposed to resettle people whether they have a claim on a piece of land or not. The NRM government, led by the revolutionary, doesn’t care.

That is the situation that we face in Bweyogerere. I keep asking myself why this regime allowed thousands of people to freely settle in a forest reserve and it is now giving them ultimatums!

 semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kira Municipality MP.