Members of Parliament (MPs) from Amuru district have revealed that plans are underway for them to meet Lands Minister, Betty Amogi and the Directors of Madhvani Group of Companies in a bid to revive discussions on the setting up of a sugar factory in the disputed Lakang and Kololo land by the Madhavani Group.
The Madhavani’s, Uganda’s barons, also own the Kakira sugar factory in Jinja district.
In August, MPs, Anthony Akol (Kilak North), Lucy Akello (District Woman) and, Gilbert Olanya (Kilak South) and Michael Lakony, the Amuru District LCV Chairperson met both Minister Amongi and Madhvani Group of company officials in an attempt to involve locals in the negotiation the impasse in the setting up of the sugar factory.
The Madhavani Group has long expressed interest in settling up a sugar factory in a fertile chunk of land in Amuru district, east of the Nile.
The multi-billion shillings project, the Amuru Sugar Works Limited has stalled since 2007 after the communities rejected government’s plan to give away up to 40,000 hectares piece of land along the shore of River Nile in Amuru district to the Madhavani’s.
At the time, government said the land is publicly owned while locals said the land is communally owned. In 2012 High Court in Gulu ruled that the land in Lakang and Kololo is publicly owned. The locals through their leaders appealed the ruling.
Recently, government and the residents signed a deed of settlement in which government acknowledged that the land in question is communally owned.
During a consultative meeting held yesterday at Lujoro village, Amuru Sub County there were mix reactions on proposal that Madhavani that should set a sugar project on a 10,000 acres of land instead of the earlier proposed 40,000 hectares.
MP Akol outlined four areas that needed to be amended before any negotiations can take place with both the government and Madhvani.
The MP cited the need to revise the number of hectares from 40,000 to 10,000. The Madhavani Group say they need 40,000 hectares for the sugar factory. Locals say this is way too big.
Additionally, Akol also said discussions need to be held on the percentage of shares which land owners will have in the factory and the welfare of workers. The MP said terms of employment should be favourable for the workers, the MP appears to have in his mind the casual labourers, who it is expected will mostly come from Amuru and neighbouring districts.
Under the current term, Akol told residents, government is entitled to a 49 percent of share while the Madhvani’s will own 51 percent stake. The legislator described this as unfair on the part of the local community who will offer land for the factory.
The Amuru Woman MP, Lucy Akello who also attended the meeting said another meeting will be set up with both government and Madhavani to address the concerns of the community and the get the best way forward.
Sylvia Yubedo, 55, who attended the consultative meeting, strongly protested the proposed plan to set up a sugar factory in the area, saying even on a single hectare of land, Madhvani is still not welcome to their ancestral land.
Yubedo explained after the onset of the return process from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), the population has rapidly started to increase and in the future, they children might need the same land which is earmarked for the setting up of a sugar factory settlement as well as farming.
But another resident, Owen Okwera, tasked the MPs to engage surveyors so that the community can have an exact idea of how 10,000 hectares will take of the land that the Madhavani Group wants.
In April 2011, President Museveni visited Amuru and accused Amuru politicians of frustrating development by inciting the population against offering land for investment.
6 Comments
Madhavni is not welcome…
As soon as people came out of the camps then the people started fighting for their only recourse, the land. What about those who took refuge far outside Uganda- don’t they need consultation too?
We ask for divine intervention from on High.
Amuru and Acholi people, are you settled? Are you consulting diasporas brothers and sisters? ” Maniani samtink” are wolves in sheeps clothing. You must be very careful and afraid . You might end up to be beggers in your own land.
MPs, Rwodi, and Amuru people you must insist and lobby the government to show the country the maps of oil fields before dealing with any body about land issue in the northern Uganda. Twora kong oryee bong instead of manufacturing sugar ma tye ka tyeko dano ki two sukari ni. Kic yat dok bene products ne weng konyo kwo pa dano. Wele bene tek I lobo mawoko loyo sugar. Lukin gang giromo lony ki kic loyo cente pa madhvani mito mini gi, dok bene nongo pud gi tye ingom mameg gi. Let settled and developed this land by ourselves. Mot mot ocero munu poto. Maame pe ber nen kong wa cello rolex, tedo mandasi ki wango makar lurok aye gitye kalony kwede wa I gang wu, pien dano pud peya gurwako lwet gi I ngom since resettlement back home. Madhvani ki government wang ma ki cwinyo dud gi ki mac ka giweko lok kom ngom Amuru pien gingeyo ngo ma tye iye lar dog gi oo iye lirooro rooro.
Over our dead bodies. Please read your history. How did an Indian from India come to own such large chunk of land in Uganda for very little money? The African was under British colonisers. Now you are independent, and your children have gone to school and can read, slept with wazungus, married wazungus nad even teach in wazungu Universities. “DOBO ochamo ching wa?” We have hands. If we need sweet things we have honey, “TYANG GEYA” etc. Let us modernize using Acholi science. Look, we knew how to construct weather relevant houses and roofs way before the white man came- not oven-like tin roofs. We grew Anyogi, layata, Nyim (very much in demand in Asia where there is population explosion), lapena, bell, kabir, etc. Let us study and modernize our own products so that we survive this famone that is to come (We will have to buy seeds that are “lalur” / cannot produce after replanting). Madhvani already is squatting in the Murchision (Why a muzumgu name for an Acholi Area) Game Park employing non-acholis. Remember that in the 60s we managed practically all the Uganda Hotels, now wapi? Soon Madhvani will own more land surface of Uganda than some districts – hence he will have colonized us. Let Madhvani go home. In 20 years we the Acholis will have mutiplied enough to need every inch of land for our people, culture.
It is said that Madhvani paid for the NRA to fight and overthrow OboteII. Where was Madhvani when Acholis lived in concentration camps yet he has hundred of thousands of empty land in Lugazi. Did he even send any medicine, quality food to feed us in the camps? Soon you will have to learn to speak Hindi (look at the signs on their shop windows written in their language) apart from chinese. Take a global look – population explosion in Asia – they will settle in Africa by force. Where will we the blacks go. We are discriminated against in India as untouchables. There are over 350,000 chinese in Angola, similar numbers in Zambia. They refused to return to China after completing building road etc because they find life in Africa very easy and Africans still very ignorant. Wake up.
Amuru MPs should not make any mistake of even negotiating an acre of land with this Nian. You should all go back to history class and understand the amount of blood our valiant ancestors shed to settle and protect these lands. They did not protect it as Amuru, not as Agago or Gulu. They were protecting Luoland from rival nations.
Please, don’t betray our ancestors’ sacrifices. You should instead sit down as APG, bring together a few grey heads from Acoliland and chart out a more Luo way of uplifting and developing our national factors of production. Yes I hear you are meeting the lands minister but I hope you are aware that the Langi are well aware of their history in Luo hands even as we tend to bury our heads under the sand and think we are dearly loved by them.
No, they have never forgotten our domination of their ancestors and will use any opportunity to see us humiliated. Take a cue from aboriginal peoples in north America, Australia and the Scandinavian region. They have been fighting for over three hundred years to reclaim their lands, language and culture after decimation by white settlers. Ours will be lost in a much shorter period because we are willing to ignore history and buy into the idiocy called sectarianism etc. All others are practicing it and telling us not to. Gweno niin, it is.
Land in Acoli should never be sold to foreigners, just rented not even leased. Because, they may bury hazardous materials from factories in their homelands that will wipe our entire nation out and we’ll have no say if sold or leased.
contact donors from the western world to fund the training of Acoli young men and women in agricultural machines and techniques so we can be the investors in our own land. These easterners, Chinese and Indians, are bereft of all morals that is why they eat dogs and have a caste system that still enslaves their own kind. I think religious leaders who are actually Acoli should line behind the likes of bishop Ocola and separate Acoli issues from neo-colonial missionary incursions. We lost so much land to government and religion in the early part of the 20th century and here we are still ceding more. And no I am not an angry man, just realistic.
WilliamFaulker once wrote:”the past is never dead.It is not even past”The Indians were completely expelled from uganda when Late Ge. Idi Amin declared Economic war on them.The British Government compensated all of them who came to the UK and they bougth Houses and are stingking rich.
They Sponsered the NRA/NRC Government of Museveni.Currently the Indians are the Majority in the British Paliament,House of Lords that backs the Lobbying of Fund for Uganda Government.
Let us tell them all over the World to forget taking an inch of Land in Acholi Sub Region.