Amuru Land Grab: The Legacy of Atiak Sugar Factory – Part III [Spending 553 billion shillings on nothing]

“The factory is currently non-operational, not producing any sugar, and this raises concerns given government’s intervention over the years. Management intimated that the reason for non-production is because sugarcane is not readily available. All this despite the huge investment by Government” (…) “Despite the factory being non-operational for couple of years, it spends 200 liters of Diesel on a daily basis, running turbines, apparently to prevent the machines from rusting and malfunctioning. This regular expenditure is disturbing given that there is no production going on” (…) “Management told us that the factory’s sugarcane plantation totaling 7,900 acres had been burnt down in December 2020, and this also affected the operations. However, the cause of the fire was unclear” (…) “Despite the heavy financial investment of 553.71 billion by Government in the joint venture, what is on ground is not commensurate with this investment. This raises questions about whether this not another white elephant” (Office of the Leader of Opposition – REPORT OF THE OVERSIGHT VISIT BY THE LEADER OF OPPOSITION AND OPPOSITION MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT TO ATIAK SUGAR FACTORY ON 7 TH OCTOBER,2024).

The saga continues, the Amuru Land Grab and the whole Atiak Sugar Factory, which has no results and nothing to show for it. After all of these years. All the budget posts and whatever the state promised the Great North. The Sugar Factor of Atiak is a failure. It is the worst sort of development project and a added value sort of enterprise in the region.

This whole ordeal just shows how the National Resistance Movement and the Governmneto of Uganda operates. They are showing their inept and inaction, their lack of good governance and even ability to make things work.

The ones running the Uganda Development Corporation should answer for their failure. This is in disregard to their mandate, which is: “To promote and facilitate industrial and economic development of Uganda”. These words are hallow and meaningless, when you see how the UDC has worked and operated in regard to Atiak.

Atiak is a proof that the UDC isn’t fit to run these sorts of businesses. They aren’t able to get it up and running. This is neither a profitable business or even a company worth investing in. There is nothing here and only been a bottomless pit. That’s what Atiak has become and everyone involved should be ashamed of the wastage of public expenditure on this.

The people of Amuru District deserves better and so does anyone else. The ones who can loose their livelihood and the plots they resides on. Just so the state can take their land and they are not even producing anything substantial. That’s what is horrific here and the owners of the Atiak aren’t doing anything either. Horyal Investments Holding Company Limited needs to answer for this too. As well, as the UDC for their lack of proper action in regards to Atiak.

Atiak is a white-elephant and one of plenty that has been made during the years of Museveni. Peace.

Opinion: Mzee has become a colonial overlord grabbing land in the North…

“Government land- Anybody occupying government land (Aswa ranch, Lakang, land acquired for the Madvhani group, etc.) must leave with immediate effect but in any case not later than 3 weeks from today” (Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 03.11.2023).

Today, we can acknowledge with certainty that the Government of Uganda (GoU) lays claims to land and expropriate it without any consideration, hesitation or plans for the ones living on it. This after years of stalemate and clashes. Because, the state has no answers and only beholden to the companies or foreign investors who “bought” the land.

That’s how the National Resistance Movement (NRM) operates. They are now giving Apaa Village three weeks to move. Others will follow in the Acholi sub-region. As the interests of Kampala/Entebbe is more important than the livelihoods or the pastoralist societies of the North. That is the message I am getting from the President.

He gives the citizens three weeks to relocate, but offers no securities, no basic ways to find new homes or land to settle on. The President is relocating families and villages all for the benefit of a few chosen ones. That’s what his doing and he has no plan or structure in place to give them shelter or a way to make a living.

What the President is now issuing is a case for the Madvhani Group, which have made agreements with the state back in the mid 2000s or around 2006 to be exact. There been plenty of setbacks and pushback on the deal. However, the state has continued and persistent that the group was to takeover 40,000 hectares of land in Amuru district and build Amuru Sugar Works.

While the mentioning of Apaa Village was to sell it to a South African Investor Bruce Martin so he got his own gaming reserve and hunting ground in the area. That was done in 2005 and continued to this day.

Another mentioned case was the sale of Aswa Ranch to the Libyan government in 1998. That’s why we know the state has worked on these cases for years and now suddenly only give a staunch warning.

That’s deliberate and a scare tactic, as there are no mechanisms or anything in place to safeguard the civilians here. Everywhere that the state has sold land. They are only becoming internally displaced people (IDPs) with nowhere to go. While the investors get prime real-estate and get huge chunks of land. That is hurting to know and the President should know better, but he has promised and the investors wants their loot. Therefore, he has to do something, because his not winning by the years going by. His not getting younger either, so he cannot enjoy the spoils if the assets and the land isn’t sold.

That is something we have to consider here, as the President just directs and orders like a colonial master over the sub-region. Where the public are just supposed to listen and if not… they will suffer consequences. The ironies of that, if they do listen… where should they go? Where and what has the state to offer them?

They have just lost everything and what they knew… so that some foreign investors could grab land in Acholiland. That’s the gig here and its infuriating. It just shows the arrogance and the entitlement of the government. As it just takes, take and doesn’t question its own behaviour here.

Acholi deserves better. They do… they are being sold for shiny objects and left out with nothing. While the President and his inner-circle is getting a piece of the action. Peace.

Ker Kwaro Acholi: Statement on continued Violence in Apaa (01.09.2023)

Amuru Land Grab: The Legacy of Atiak Sugar Factory – Part II

“Over the past five years, more than UGX 400 billion of taxpayer money has been spent on Atiak Sugar Project. The factory has remained closed for two years, and sugarcane meant to provide raw materials are now being sold to factories outside the region. If billions of shillings sunk into the project cannot be traced, who will revive this sugarcane factory?” (NBS Television, 13.03.2023).

This story has been going on since 11^th December 2014. We are now in March 2023 and two years of closure. Meaning one year after the President Museveni commissioned the Atiak Sugar Factory on the 23^rd October 2020, the factory itself got closed during 2021 and has ceased it’s operation. If this continues onto 2024. Than it is a decade lost in the trade, lack of due diligence and governmental oversight.

This is just another development project, another government investment into a cash-crop and adding value enterprise, which has fallen in dire straits. It is just horrific that people have internally displaced, lost their plots, their livelihoods and foreign investors has grabbed their lands. It is reported up to 8,000 people has lost lands in the region to facilitate the Atiak Sugar Factory. A Sugar Factory that only exists on paper, because it isn’t producing anything.

The state has already bailed out the Horyal Investment Holdings twice before 2016 and you can wonder if it will happen again. We can wonder if the state plans to it three or four times by 2024. While we know the state is working on overtime to facilitate lands in Amuru district for the Madhvani Group. It is clear that it’s an epic failure and the locals has been hurt the most. A giant massive cash-cow for someone, but not for the general public. Neither is it helping Kilak County or Amuru district.

No, this is just a painful enterprise and a lack of planning before investing, building and even considering to operate a sugar factory. It is just a wasteland of wasted potential and lack of concern of the people who was forced to move from their homeland. It is really tragic that their losses, grievances and livelihoods got eaten up by “hot-air” and nothingness.

This just what the National Resistance Movement (NRM) does… promises to save the people and securing their future. However, they cannot even get the state owned enterprises running. This is one of them and they have “lost the plot”. I am feeling sad for everyone who lost their land and was evicted. They lost the most. The investors and the foreign dignitaries thieving the land will escape any trouble. It is the poor that takes the hardest hit and the state will offer them scraps in return. Peace.

Amuru Land Grab: The Apaa Village evictions is never ending story…

“Legislators from the Acholi sub-region were blocked from accessing the Apaa township, bordering Adjumani and Amuru districts. The eight MPs from the region were in Apaa on a fact-finding mission following an arson attack, displacement, and reports of gross abuse of human rights over persistent land wrangles. These were instead met by police officers and army men heavily armed with teargas and guns who blocked their access” (NBS Television, 10.06.2022).

This here story goes back in time. So far back that we are now soon two decades since the state gave the land to the investor. Since then the Apaa village has seen the forceful state, evictions and other sorts of tactics of the state to takeover the land. In the Northern Uganda land has been taken and given to “industrial” purposes like the plantations for the Kakira Factory for instance. Therefore, the ideas of taking land for “development” isn’t new. However, the state doesn’t give anything in return to the evicted and only creates more internally displaced persons. Which is another crisis in the making.

The Apaa village and Apaa community deserves better. They have been victims, which shown by this quotation from a report in 2014.

“The case of land in Apaa Village (Amuru District) illustrates the suspicions of local people concerning the acquisition of large tracts of land. In 2005, when people were still living in the camps, land was given to Bruce Martin from South Africa who was investing in game reserves for sports hunting. When resistance from the community intensified, it is claimed that the government changed tactics and asked the neighbouring district of Adjumani to contest ownership and claim that this land actually lies within Adjumani District. The Adjumani District authorities then passed a council resolution giving the land away to the ‘investor’. Some participants in this research argued that the boundaries between the two districts of Adjumani and Acholi are clear, and that some district politicians are manufacturing the boundary conflict. During an interview with the District Chairperson of Adjumani, he showed a map of the area in dispute claiming the area belongs to Adjumani District” (Otim & Mugisha, P: 8, 2014).

What is striking is that this case has been a running case in the 9^th and 10^th Parliament. Now, it returns to prominence in the 11^th Parliament too. That means the Apaa village never been resolved, neither has the rights of the Apaa community really been heard. Secondly, the former MPs and Local Councillors haven’t been able to voice it up. This because it is a stalemate and the land is still up for grabs.

We know in 2018 that Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) did some evictions of people in the area. This was done with the support of the army or the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF). That just shows that the District Land Board and Area Land Board wasn’t able to petition or have a say. Therefore, the directives and the promise of land was already settled without considering the implications locally.

That’s maybe why the MPs are trying to investigate it. They are MPs representing the Acholi sub-region, but still not allowed to access the area. That says something about the what is going on and possibly could be furthering escalations. We can be rest assured that the State House has directed it and is silently behind it all. As they have promised the land for the investor.

It is tragic that this is happing to Apaa village. Wonder, if the President would have been so kind to an “investor” if it happened to his farm in Rwaiktura farm in Kiruhura district. As a Namibian “investor” was given land and for “development” purposes in the greater Mbarara area. Because, that would be the same and he would have to idly move without any compensation. That would have been a similar act of land grab, which is what’s happening here in Apaa village in the Acholi sub-region. Peace.

Reference:

Otim, David & Mugisha, Police Charles – Saferworld: ‘Beyond the reach of the hoe: The struggle for land and minerals in Northern Uganda’ (April 2014)

Amuru Land Grab: The Legacy of Atiak Sugar Factory

Today on the 23^rd October 2020 President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni commissioned Atiak Sugar Factory. This is not without consequences. The industrial enterprise has cost two thousands citizens their lands.

It has been years since the 11^th December 2014. There been reports that the Madhvani Group have used land for big sugar-cane plantations, which are the producers for the Atiak Factory. This has been the reason for the land grabbing and forced evictions of the Acholi. The Madhvani Group established their Amuru Sugar Works who was getting 40,000 hectares of land.

The state will proclaim the amount of people working there and families, which is supposed to participating in the enterprise. They are only proclaiming the great things. However, not telling the costs in Amuru district or amount of forced evictions. Neither, addressing the bailouts of the investor. Who is behind the Sugar Factory either.

Today, that should not be forgotten. People have died in protests over the years. There been naked protests and MPs arrested over this. Therefore, the Atiak Sugar Factory has created issues. These should not be forgotten in the starting of production at the factory.

The factory is partly owned by the state and Horyal Investment Holdings Company Limited. Atiak Sugar factory located in Gem Farm, Atiak sub-county, Kilak County, in Amuru District. In Okidi North there are residents who said their was kicked out by the building of the factory and the land. The total of people in articles mentioned is about 80 people. As the Atiak Factory and its estate covers about 16,000 hectares of land. There been speculation of about 80 people thrown out of their lands needing redress for losing their land.

Therefore, there are plenty of scandals in the building of this factory. That they didn’t clear the legalities before the Madhvani Group or Horyal Investment Holdings got their land. This should have been fixed before the citizens was thrown away from their land without any compensation becoming Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in camps. That has happen in this regard, but the President only wants to praise for the industrial enterprise itself.

This factory needs to be remembered for all the folks who lost their land by the state and foreign investors who got it. Because, this wasn’t just a small token and building a factory somewhere. No, this was forcing an industry into an area. Bailing out an investor (Horyal) at least once, maybe twice in the years since 2016. Also, giving land cheaply to Madhvani Group to produce sugar-cane. Therefore, this isn’t a success, but a depressing move into modernity and producing of sugar.

It isn’t sweet, but it is instead bitter. Peace.

Uganda Wildlife Authority letter to All Residents of Adjumani District – “Re: Shifting of Apaa Market to Zoka Centre” (10.04.2019)

Press Statement by the Acholi Parliamentary Group: On the Issue of Land in Acholi Sub Region (28.02.2019)

Statement to Parliament on the Situation in Apaa Parish, Adjumani District by the Minister of Internal Affairs (05.0.2019)

Solidarity March against the Apaa Land Grab in Gulu today: It was shutdown by the Police!

Today, there was held an demonstration in Gulu town for the land evictions happing in Apaa village. This is a planned land grab by the authorities dating back to 2006. As the land in Amuru have been given to Madhvani Group to the planned Kakira Sugar Factory there. Therefore, these evictions have been planned for decades.

That why I rewrite this again: The Amuru Land Grab: What is ours, is OURS; What is their’s, is OURS; and Whatever is your’s, is still OURS.

Here is today’s reports:

“SOLIDARITY MARCH Monday 4th February: Apaa Monitor has received information that a demonstration is taking place tomorrow at 8am, departing from Ker Kwaro Acholi head quarters in Gulu, in solidarity with those who are suffering in Apaa, and to denounce the atrocities that have taken place there. 8am, Ker Kwaro Acholi, Gang ker ma dit” (Apaa Monitor, 03.02.2019).

“Acholi MPs; Amuru Woman MP Lucy Akello, Kilak South MP Gilbert Olanya, Kilak North MP Anthony Akol and Aruu North MP Odongo Otto arrested over Apaa land demo. They were detained at Gulu Central Police Station for holding an illegal demonstration” (Edge.ug, 04.02.2019).

He we see again, that the public, the Members of Parliament and others are not allowed to address or voice out their grievances. This is currently very normal. Even if the people behind or organizing the demonstration had notified the authorities about their planned demonstration. The Police might still stop it or even bar it from happen.

They might have all the papers right, but still the police would come all out, because it doesn’t matter, even if they did follow the Public Order Management Act (POMA). The Police could still deem it illegal, as they didn’t notify correctly or “incited violence” breaking the penal code.

This is very common, therefore, I have a hard time believing this rally/demonstration was illegal. If it was, they did it this way. Because the MPs and the ones behind it, knew the authorities never would get it accepted. Since, the Apaa Land Grab is an accepted deal between the State and Madhvani Group since 2006. Therefore, the President would be humiliated and the Police Force cannot accept that. Peace.