The long-standing land tensions between pastoralist communities known as the Balaalo and the indigenous people of the Acholi sub-region have reached a boiling point, following a government directive ordering the eviction of the Balaalo from Acholi land starting June 25, 2025.
While framed as a response to illegal land acquisition and environmental degradation, the move has ignited complex debates over ethnicity, historical injustice, constitutional rights, and political accountability, exposing Uganda’s broader struggle to reconcile modern land ownership with communal traditions.
The Balaalo, often described as nomadic herdsmen, began settling in northern Uganda in 2016, primarily in search of greener pastures. Although their ethnic origins are contested, many link them to the Bahima of Uganda’s Ankole sub-region, as well as Kinyarwanda-speaking communities from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
Despite these unclear roots, their identity is often viewed as being shaped not only by culture but also by political, military, and economic affiliations.
A 2024 article in the African Journal of History and Geography outlines how historical displacement of pastoralists in 1964, 1973, and 1992 rendered them a landless minority. Today, their reemergence in northern Uganda as landowners—sometimes controversially—is viewed by many Acholi leaders and residents as a continuation of state-enabled land alienation.
Though Uganda’s constitution allows every citizen the right to acquire and own land anywhere in the country, Acholi leaders have fiercely opposed the presence of the Balaalo, citing breaches in cultural norms, fraudulent land acquisitions, and communal land rights.
In Acholi, land is not privately owned but held in trust by clans and families—making individual land sales legally ambiguous and socially unacceptable. Gulu Woman MP Betty Aol Ocan emphasized that the issue lies not in people acquiring land in the north, but in how that land is acquired and used.
“They undermine community land rights, promote environmental degradation, and trigger violent land conflicts, further eroding the Acholi culture,” she said.
“No one in Acholi owns 1,000 acres alone—how is it possible for outsiders to claim such land? Can any Acholi claim ownership of 500 acres in Bunyoro or Ankole?”
The Balaalo argue that they purchased their land legally and deserve either compensation or fair legal recourse. However, political leaders across the sub-region say most of these acquisitions were done through fraudulent means, exploiting weak governance structures and corrupt local officials. Kilak MP Gilbert Olanya condemned the inaction of many local leaders, alleging that bribes have muted their response to this “growing crisis.”
“People are angry. If the presidential directive is ignored, the ruling party risks losing support in the next election,” he warned.
“Why hasn’t a single herd of cattle been evicted? Why is a presidential order being disregarded?” The directive, issued on June 1, 2025, criminalizes free-range grazing in Acholi, where cattle have repeatedly trampled crops and violated residents’ livelihoods.
Customary leaders like Odonga Otto maintain that no individual has the authority to sell communal land.
“They should buy land in urban centers, not claim what is communally owned. I can’t even sell my own family land—how did they acquire it?” he asked.
Professor Ogenga Latigo, a respected academic and former legislator, took a more conciliatory tone, suggesting that peaceful coexistence could be possible if Balaalo settled and integrated meaningfully with local communities.
“If they raised animals, married within, and built relations, that would be assimilation, not alienation,” he said. But for now, the mood is anything but conciliatory. The Balaalo claim the eviction order, led by Northern Uganda minister Dr Kenneth Omona, 4th Division Commander Maj Gen Felix Busizoori, and Police Commissioner Phillip Ocaya, was imposed without consultation.
They argue that it unfairly targets them on ethnic grounds and plan to challenge it in court.
“We speak Acholi, we’ve married Acholi, we trade with Acholi,” said one Balaalo herdsman in Gulu.
“We are Ugandans. Why are we being treated as outsiders?” Yet in Acholi, the communal land system is more than law—it is identity, heritage, and survival. The idea of privatized land sales, especially involving large tracts acquired under questionable circumstances, strikes at the heart of communal solidarity. For many Acholi, allowing such acquisitions is tantamount to erasing centuries of ancestral stewardship.
How did the Balaalo who used to live in western Uganda, including parts of Bunyoro, move to northern Uganda, broadly construed, to include Teso and West Nile regions, and acquire land rights?
What happened to the lands in which the Balaalo used to live in western Uganda?
Have we not created an unnecesary problem for future generations?
They have no right to be there unless they bought the land they are on legally. No discussion or concession just kick all of them out if not, you the Acholi, you will have no land at all and you will find yourselves slaves on the land that once belonged to you. Fight for it. This is the whole aim of the Balaalo. You need our help, millions of Ugandan are behind you.