Approximately 24 square miles of Aswa and Nshaara government ranches, in Pader and Kiruhura districts respectively, could be doled out to individuals, private companies and the ruling party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), if the minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Vincent Ssempijja, gets his way.
The land is currently under the care of the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Databank (NAGRCDB) whose mandate is to support modern animal breeding in the country.
Eyebrow-raising as this matter is, cases of the state being stripped of its prime properties have become all too common throughout President Museveni’s 31-year rule.
It started with real estate in urban areas, especially land belonging to education institutions, and now it has spread to the vast farmlands mainly gazetted in the 1950s and 1960s to serve as centres of excellence in agriculture.
Only recently, it came to light that Mbarara stock farm has been encroached on, and President Museveni himself warned the encroachers to vacate the government land, for which they have gone to court to claim it belongs to them.
Earlier, it was revealed that the Tororo-based livestock institute run by the National Animal Genetic Resource Centre (NAGRC) was to lose a big chunk of its land to the fertiliser-manufacturing investment project in the area.
The government apparently plans to relocate the research institute to Maruzi, its other ranch located in the Lango sub-region. In addition, reports emerged in 2015 that 900 acres of land belonging to the Namulonge-based National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) was to be given away to an investor to grow flowers.
Even if some of these moves might be well-intentioned, the public is justified to be concerned because the record of this government when it comes to managing public land in trust has been abysmal.
Under the guise of attracting investors, significant prime land has been given away in suspicious circumstances and in many cases there is nothing to show for it many years later.
It is, therefore, unacceptable that the two ranches should be given away to private companies and NRM. There are no guarantees that ordinary farmers will benefit from such an arrangement.
