Police and district leaders in Kibaale have called off a non violent demonstration that was earlier organized by Rural Smiles Foundation – a women and youth NGO, that was due to take place on 30th July 2024 in Mugarama Sub County. In a joint statement issued by district leaders and police yesterday noted that the demonstration was a threat to security as it would turn violent due to angry locals.
It should be noted that police in Uganda has of recent been blocking non violent demonstrations in Uganda with the most recent one being the Anti Corruption demonstration and other demonstrations organised by political parties.
Background
Kibaale District, located in western Uganda, has a long history of land disputes that can be traced back to colonial times. During the British colonial period, large tracts of land were allocated to colonial agents and settlers, often ignoring the customary land rights of the indigenous communities. These historical injustices have had lingering effects, contributing to the current conflicts.
Rural Smiles Foundation needed to address some of these challenges and bring about a systematic change in land ownership structures through a project titled “Justice for Widows’ Land Rights”. Following yesterdays statement of police cancelling the demonstration clearance, there was heavy deployment of security forces in Mugarama today to prevent demonstrators.
In an interview with the district police commander Esther, she revealed that the district leaders acknowledged the clear intensions of the demonstration and the gaps that the district had in handling people’s land grievances and revealed that later in the day the district land board, security departments and a team from Rural Smiles are to have an urgent meeting to discuss the way forward. By press time, we had not succeeded in getting in touch with the Executive Director – Rural Smiles as his contacts were busy.
