Madi leaders accuse NRM Gov’t of ploy to grab Apaa land

ADJUMANI, UGANDA: The leaders in the Madi sub-region have said it is apparently clear that the NRM government under the leadership of President Yoweri Museveni has no intention of resolving the longstanding Apaa conflict which has the potential of degenerating into bloody clashes between Madi and their neighbours Acholi

The LCV chairpersons of Adjumani and Moyo districts both believe President Museveni has no political goodwill for ending the Apaa land conflict which has remained a contested area even when the government has long declared Apaa is in Adjumani district.

While addressing a rally in Gulu City on February 20, 2023, Mr Museveni reversed the decision of the cabinet and halted the eviction of illegal settlers in Apaa days after Prime Minister Hon. Robinah Nabanja issued an ultimatum of 3 months for the illegal settlers to vacate or face the bursting fury of the law.

However, in a press conference held at Adjumani district headquarters on Tuesday, March 7, Mr Anyama Ben said he believes there is a conspiracy by the powerful leaders of the Acholi and their peers in government to grab Apaa which is 8 kilometres, from Amuru-Adjumani border.

“Apaa land is not for grabs and I now declare that the people of Madi and West Nile region will draw strenuous and substantial stamina to protect their land,” he said.

 Mr Anyama called upon President Museveni to respect the decision of the cabinet and that of the constitutional court calling for the eviction of the illegal settlers in Apaa.

He said since the government has failed to manage Apaa land, the entire East Madi Wild Life Reserve should revert back to the original land owners because the leaders in Madi-sub will not accept the government degazettes Apaa land for the illegal settlers to take possession as contained in the master plan of leaders in Acholi sub-region.

“This is not negotiable, we are aware of our weak numerical strength, but technically, like the Israelites in the Middle East who have endured decades of onslaughts from hostile neighbours, we shall fight until the last Madi falls down and we are sure God will never abandon us, as the righteous at all times conquers”. Mr Anyama cautioned.

According to him, President Yoweri Museveni is unquestionably conscious of the political asset of the people in the Acholi sub-region as they have the advantage of numerical strength over the Madi Sub-region, and the significant numbers of senior government officials hailing from Acholi districts could have probably compromised his decision.

Apparently, the irate Moyo district chairman Mr Anyama Williams on March 6, 2023, said for the first time he has drawn a parallel with the President after he disowned the Prime Minister Hon.Robinah Nabanja stating that her declaration on Apaa evictions has never been resolved by the government. To him, this is hypocrisy and a plot against the people of Madi sub-region. Because Apaa has never existed in Acholi land since the time of creation.

“If the government has decided that the people in the Madi-Sub region should defend their land, be it because the president’s statement is a clear manifestation that he has abandoned the people of Madi to their own fate and we now turn to God for rescue,” he pondered.

Former Obongi County MP Hon.Hassan Fungaro said the leaders and people from the Acholi sub-region have mastered the politics of President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM party and it makes it very hard for him to disappoint them even if science and history have been past reasonable reservation that Apaa is in Adjumani district.

“In the Acholi sub-region, the issue of Apaa is the concern of every adult across the Acholi sub-region, the Acholi in diaspora and Kampala are on the Apaa drawing board as Madi leaders are busy conflicting on groundless and rigid political variances.”

The Pakele sub-county chairman Mr. Kenyi Welbourne said the leaders of the Acholi sub-region are currently working on the expansion of the borders of the Amuru district which is not different from what the leaders in Russia led by President Vladimir Putin are doing to Ukraine.

Mr Kenyi Welbourne said the Government of Uganda is not serious on matters of conservation because Apaa contested land sits deep inside East Madi Wild Life Reserve which covers an area of 827 kilometres and is given to UWA by Adjumani district council in 1998.

The Ofua sub-county chairman who doubles as chairman of the Adjumani sub-county chairpersons Association Mr., Dramwi Robert wondered how the leadership of Madi sub-regions will accept and embrace the work of a judicial commission of inquiry into Apaa land conflict when the Chief Justice of Uganda, Alphonse Owiny Dolo and the Minister of Justice and constitutional affairs Nobert Mao are interested parties in the conflict.

Mr Dramwi said the people of the Madi Sub-region remained patient even when a group of people from all over Acholi districts invaded East Madi Wild Life Reserve which houses Zoka forest thinking that government will prevail but it appears the government has taken sides.

Background

Since the beginning of the Apaa land conflict in 2006, the government through the cabinet made decisions that were squarely reversed, internally sabotaged, or not implemented due to contradicting and varying interests among leaders.

In 2012, the then minister of state for Lands Hon. Sarah Opendi was sent to Apaa to launch the boundary opening exercise but she was recalled before executing her mission.

The former Minister of Internal Affairs; the late Gen. Aronda Nyakairima travelled to Apaa alongside the then Minister of State for lands Hon. Daudi Migereko in 2015, to communicate the government position and mobilize the settlers to vacate the protected land but they were forced to abandon their duty when somersaulting nude or naked women who were mobilized by a cross-section of Acholi MPs disrupted the meeting.

In his maiden address to the people of Apaa in 2017, the former Minister of Local Government Mr Tom Butime ordered the residents of Appa to vacate the conservation area or face eviction but the defiant settlers stayed on.

In August 2018, President Yoweri Museveni addressed a rally in the Apaa market, enlightening the population that Apaa is in a protected area and in the Adjumani district and advised the encroachers to vacate but they resisted on false assurance of their leaders.

President Yoweri Museveni in the same year appointed former Prime Minister Rukuhana Rugunda to form a committee to investigate the conflict in Apaa, the report of the prime minister is lying on the table of the president with no traceable consequence.

The Minister of security Gen.Jim Muhwezi in 2021, informed parliament that Apaa is in Adjumani and stated the illegal settlers would be compelled by the government to vacate.

On February 15, 2023, prime minister Robina Nabanja led a team of Ministers to Adjumani district where she declared that based on cabinet resolutions of 2019 and 2022, the government has given a three months period for the encroachers in the East Madi Wild Life Reserve to vacate or faces forceful eviction.

The prime minister said only 394 households were eligible for compensations but 71 of the households who were in Apaa during the national identification registration exercise and participated in the exercise will receive shs 20m,20 bags of cement and iron sheets. In contrast, those with no proof of identification cards during the same period will receive shs2m.

But two days before the public address in Kaunda grounds in Gulu city, the architects of the Apaa conflict played with the political emotions of the president when they carried three empty coffins to the palace of the leader of Acholi cultural Institution, Rwoth David Achana.

The mastery of Apaa politics has changed the talking of president Yoweri Museveni, from border contest, to land rights and land use, the argument is to pave way for degazetting the protected area so that the illegal settlers majority of who are from the Acholi sub-region might become the bonafide owners of Apaa.