Press Releases

On Friday February 21, 2020, court heard the case through which the refinery-affected people are accusing government of paying them delayed, unfair and inadequate compensation.

During the court case hearing, the people submitted evidence that showed how government’s failure to pay them prompt, fair and adequate compensation, failure to implement commitments in the 2012 Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) report, government’s use of a cut-off-date in an unconditional and inhumane manner and others is affecting the people.

For instance, todate, nearly eight years after the people were displaced, they are faced with isolation, are discriminated against, live in broken families and have limited access to credit services due to limited social capital among others.

The people want court to order government to remedy some of the injustices against them through paying them adequate compensation among others.

The refinery-affected people’s court case is important for ensuring that other project-affected people including those in the oil sector are not affected by the same injustices that the refinery-affected people were.

Kindly download and circulate the attached press statement to promote justice for all oil-affected people.Media release on outcomes of the oil refinery case of 21-February-2020

We would like to notify you that the case in which youth and CSOs want the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certificate of approval for the Tilenga oil project to be cancelled is going to be heard today in the Kampala High Court today (October 1, 2019).

Kindly refer to the attached update for moreUpdate on hearing of Tilenga case today 01-10-2019

Government must open Nyahaira P/S this school term to enable the oil refineryaffected pupils who were relocated to Kyakaboga to return to school, refineryaffected parents have said. Read More: Press statement by ORRA calling for opening of Nyahaira

The deputy chief justice Mr. Steven Kavuma must stop using the law to serve injustice and cheat Ugandans, a consortium of nine civil society organisations working for justice and equitable development in Uganda has said. The organisations which include Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), Global Rights Alert (GLA), National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), made the above call following the issuance of an interim order restraining parliament, any persons or authority from investigating or inquiring into the Shs 6 billion oil cash bonus payment made to several government officials. Press statement on Justice Steven Kavuma’s gagging debate on Shs 6B oil cash payments

The deputy chief justice Mr. Steven Kavuma must stop using the law to serve injustice and cheat Ugandans, a consortium of nine civil society organisations working for justice and equitable development in Uganda has said. The organisations which include Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), Global Rights Alert (GLA), National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), made the above call following the issuance of an interim order restraining parliament, any persons or authority from investigating or inquiring into the Shs 6 billion oil cash bonus payment made to several government officials. Press statement on Justice Steven Kavuma’s gagging debate on Shs 6B oil cash payments

Press Release, 05th August 2014

Kabaale, Hoima-Uganda –The human rights abuses endured by the refinery affected people of Kabaale Parish, Buseruka Sub County-Hoima Uganda for the past two years will get a lot worse unless the families who asked for relocation and those who rejected inadequate rates of compensation currently living in isolated ghost villages are rescued immediately before disasters in form of famine, falling houses, lack of health care, education services, clean water, gangs of criminals and snakes roaming the area strike, AFIEGO warned yesterday.
“The over two years of delay by the government to adequately compensate all the oil refinery affected people in Kabaale has exposed the families remaining in the area to untold suffering, and any more delays may result into a disaster no-one can estimate the gravity before the end of 2014,” said Dickens Kamugisha, Chief Executive Officer-AFIEGO. If the government does not urgently fulfil her constitutional duty of adequately compensating all the affected people where those who want relocation are resettled in a new area with basic services such as houses, clean water, schools, health centres and roads while those who rejected unfair rates are paid fair and adequate compensation to enable them buy land elsewhere as a matter of urgency, the nightmare endured by the families over the past 2 or so years will be only the beginning. It will worsen and go out of control.
If it cannot compensate the affected people to leave the affected villages, Government should immediately restore basic services for the families especially the vulnerable groups including the over 500 women, 293 children, 170 elderly and 90 widows currently languishing in the villages with no means to access shops, water, schools, health services, no access roads and foot-passes and living at the risk of being attached by dangerous snakes and hungry dogs. “The help to these people must start now.” Micheal Businge, AFIEGO’s Bunyoro Field Coordinator, said yesterday.
“Continued lamentation of government that there are no funds to complete the compensation and relocation when the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) being implemented stops the affected families from using their land for any development and the failure to provide social/basic services to the local communities in the area is clear evidence of an oil curse and only serves to confirm the level of impunity for constitutional violations and human rights abuses amidst oil development. These deliberate violations are against Article 26 of the Constitution which protects people’s rights to property and states that the right to property can only be interfered with only after payment of fair and adequate compensation to the affected person”, Ms. Resty Namuli-AFIEGO’s legal officer, said.
The above violations have made it so far impossible for other groups to provide a lasting solution to the suffering being faced in the refinery area. In addition to going to court, AFIEGO together with the group leaders of the affected people has moved in to support the roofing of the houses of the elderly women who had started living in the open, transporting the sick to Hoima town for treatment, supporting the repair of the broken boreholes, sensitizing the people to avoid mortgaging their possible future compensation through loans, supporting the affected families who have some land outside the refinery area with fruit tree seedlings (mangoes, ovacados, guavas, oranges, pawpaws and others) and clearing foot passes from the nearest feeder roads to some households. These are not complete solutions but they are intended to mitigate the suffering and misery as we wait for the court decision to stop the government’s excesses.
Our response
As the affected people remain stranded, AFIEGO is working with the group leaders of the PAPs to identify the most vulnerable people/families and availing them with any badly needed help possible. In the last one month alone, AFIEGO has helped 31 women and children to get to health centres in Hoima for some treatment, supported a repair of a borehole, encouraged 8 families to send back their children to the nearest primary schools and persuaded other 11 families to avoid loans. AFIEGO, under her public litigation for social justice and human rights initiative is facilitating over 80 families to attend Kampala High Court hearings regarding their refinery case. We need your support to keep the people actively involved.
“Last month, AFIEGO was able to facilitate 30 affected families to attend the first hearing where the High Court ordered against any evictions of the affected people. After the case hearing, we travelled with the people back to Kabaale and visited 39 families considered to be at the highest risk. We found, the number one priority for everyone we talked to was accommodation, food, drugs, and education for children and fear for wild animals. They are already hurting as many of their children have missed the whole year of 2014 and not sure whether they will go in 2015 because the children either cannot walk long distances through the bushes to the nearest schools or they can’t walk on empty tummies as they have no food. They also can’t send the children to schools while still in Kabaale as they expect to be displaced any day. Those who risk planting short term crops such as beans and sweet potatoes are also in tears as the animals cannot allow them grow to maturity. If you visit Kabaale, the community’s suffering is beyond any imagination”

To make it worse, many of the families are being evicted from the trading centres where they have been taking refuge after running away from their falling houses located in the bushes where neighbours left them some months ago. Now, the people who got their compensation and left their houses in the trading centres have come back to take away the materials from the houses to build new ones where they shifted to. Sadly, it is mostly widows and children who are being pushed out of those houses. The current help we are giving is just a drop in the ocean” AFIEGO is currently designing projects that will enable us increase our capacity to engage with the government and other stakeholders to mitigate the human rights violations.
“While the new 2014/15 budget should give hope to provide funds to complete the compensation of the affected people, we doubt the readiness of the government to consider the refinery affected people’s polite as a priority. Already, contrary to the Constitution, last month, the parliament dominated by the ruling party MPs including the MPs from the oil region authorised the government to access half of the annual budget (over UGX7 trillion) in the first quarter of the financial year before any discussion of the budget by the House. These are signs which clearly indicate that both the executive and parliament are not about to stick to the rules of governance and without good governance, the citizens will continue to be sacrificed by those in authority” Dickens said.

AFIEGO will continue to work to not only ease the current suffering witnessed in Kabaale “we will also work to ensure that a new law is put in place to address the injustice in compensation across Uganda” our target is to ensure that every affected citizen across the nation should be guaranteed prompt payment of fair and adequate compensation and where this fails, the court system should be accessible, reliable and affordable for everyone to access for redress with confidence and trust.

“in terms of numbers, more than a third of the affected people are still languishing in the ghost villages of Kabaale, over 78 children between the ages of 3 to 17 have missed going to school for the 2014, 53 families have no houses you can call home and no food. Mr. Kamugisha said.

About AFIEGO
AFIEGO (Africa Institute for Energy Governance) has been operating in Kabaale, Buseruka-Hoima and the Albertan Graben a whole since, 2007. We also work in the rest of the country building the capacity of communities, institutions and influencing policies to work for the citizens. The commencement of the oil refinery development process through land acquisition in Kabaale made it inevitable for us to work with the communities in the area. We are using experiences and lessons from related projects to ensure that our efforts produce maximum results for the affected people.

Media and other line staff contacts
Patience Akumu (communications-Kampala): + 254-414-571597, afiego@afiego.org
Resty Namuli (Legal education officer): +254-414-571597, afiego@afiego.org
Micheal Businge (Hoima): +256-773-769450, afiego@afiego.org

As Ugandans anticipates a major spike in revenue from oil production, suspicions and mistrust between the two authorities must end to prevent conflict and ensure equitable development

Kampala, 7th August 2014
The undersigned Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) express deep concern at the serious violence that happened last month in the areas of Kasese, Kamwenge and Ntoroko in southwestern Uganda, which resulted in the deaths of over 90 civilians and security personnel as well as the arrest of hundreds of suspects. This is an area which has suffered decades of violence from various armed groups, including the ADF, which in one case slaughtered over 80 students at Kicwamba College. The communities want peace and development but not violence and death.

We strongly condemn all the perpetrators of such violence and call upon the government and traditional leaders to ensure that such violence between civilians and security agencies does not happen again. We commend the efforts of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) who, since the violence to date, has camped in the region to ensure peace. However, we remind him and the government that there can never be peace without truth and reconciliation. While the President, the Minister for Defence, Minister for Internal Affairs and other political leaders have attempted to point at possible causes of the violence, it is not convincing to explain why the different tribes in the Rwenzori region, which have lived together in peace for decades, are now picking up pangas and spears to attack each other and to attack military barracks and police stations.
The President and his ministers’ statements also do not explain the excessive force that was used by police and the army against civilians which resulted into the death of over 90 people. Such violence and the killings cannot be explained or justified politically. Impossible.
The painful truth: we lost Ugandans, both civilians and security personnel, from senseless violence. The security agencies of the government failed in their primary duty of detecting and preventing the violence; this led to the killings. By commission or omission, both the attackers and the security forces who may have killed the attackers should be blamed for the violence and the death. In addition to the IGP camping in the region and the political statements by the President and ministers, an independent commission of inquiry headed by a judge should be initiated to find out the truth and make recommendations for a lasting solution.
The commission should investigate the allegations that the cause of the Ruwenzori violence was the ongoing creation of new cultural institutions, which are viewed by the old Kingdoms as a ploy by the government to weaken the existing traditional institutions. In their view, this enables the government and her agents in the new Chiefdoms to grab land and other natural resources located in the old Kingdoms, which is of particular relevlance as Uganda prepares for oil production in the region.
It should be remembered that the Rwenzori violence came few months after the Rwenzururu King Mumbele was stopped from visiting parts of His Kingdom. This is related to the Buganda violence, which happened as a result of the government stopping the Buganda King Ronald Mutebi from visiting Kayunga, one of the areas in the Buganda Kingdom. At that time, the Banyala, a small tribe in Buganda, was demanding from the government to be declared an independent Kingdom from Buganda. The resulting violence led to the death of over 50 civilians and hundreds of injuries and arrests.
Like the violence in Rwenzori, the Buganda-Kayunga violence was a senseless violence that happened at the time when tensions between the government and the Buganda Kingdom over the Kingdom’s property were high. The Kingdom viewed the Banyala as a creation of the government to weaken Buganda and defeat her efforts to recover her land and property. Unfortunately, to date, after over four years of the violence, there is no evidence about what happened. The police report has never been made public.
If such deep-rooted mistrust and suspicions are not addressed, the development of oil in the Albertan Graben, a region that covers the Ruwenzori and borders with Eastern DRC, may be dangerous and devestating. Many small tribes will struggle to claim their share of oil and protect their land from the growing population arriving to benefit from oil opportunities, while the original kingdoms will struggle to maintain their original boundaries.
While the prosecution of suspects is necessary, the lessons from the Buganda violence clearly indicate that such a step alone cannot provide a lasting solution to problems of mistrust and suspicion between Kingdoms and the government.
To find a lasting solution, there is a need to establish the truth behind the violence and bring all parties involved on the table for truth and reconcilation.
We recommend that, in the initial years of oil development, the creation of new Kingdoms should be suspended across Uganda for at least for 10 years to allow the current wounds to heal. This is a sacrifice that Ugandans should welcome for the sake of preventing further bloodshed. During the time of suspension, both the traditional and government leaders should engage in honest discussions and sensitize the citizens on how to live as one people.

About the undersigned CSOs:
The Ugandan CSOs, together with partners from DRC, Rwanda and Burundi under an IUCN NL-supported transboundary project entitled ‘Empowering Local Communities to Influence Governments & Regional Bodies to Respect Human, Social, Economic and Environmental Needs and Rights in the Graben and the Great Lakes Region’, remain steadfast in their commitment to building the capacity of local communities and engaging with all relevant stakeholders in the Graben to promote socio-economic development, peace and environmental conservation. Our work with communities is done in an impartial, neutral and independent manner.
This press release is undersigned by the following civil society organizations from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC:
AFIEGO Uganda RCREF, DRC
Global Rights Alert, Uganda COPEILE, DRC
IDPE, DRC ADEV, DRC
SOPR, DRC ACNR, Rwanda
CREDDHO, DRC ABN, Burundi

The abuse of the Refinery Affected People’s rights poised to worsen, AFIEGO warns
Press Release, 05th August 2014

Kabaale, Hoima-Uganda– The human rights abuses endured by the refinery affected people of Kabaale Parish, Buseruka Sub County-Hoima Uganda for the past two years will get a lot worse unless the families who asked for relocation and those who rejected inadequate rates of compensation currently living in isolated ghost villages are rescued immediately before disasters in form of famine, falling houses, lack of health care, education services, clean water, gangs of criminals and snakes roaming the area strike, AFIEGO warned yesterday.

“The over two years of delay by the government to adequately compensate all the oil refinery affected people in Kabaale has exposed the families remaining in the area to untold suffering, and any more delays may result into a disaster no-one can estimate the gravity before the end of 2014,” said Dickens Kamugisha, Chief Executive Officer-AFIEGO. If the government does not urgently fulfil her constitutional duty of adequately compensating all the affected people where those who want relocation are resettled in a new area with basic services such as houses, clean water, schools, health centres and roads while those who rejected unfair rates are paid fair and adequate compensation to enable them buy land elsewhere as a matter of urgency, the nightmare endured by the families over the past 2 or so years will be only the beginning. It will worsen and go out of control.

If it cannot compensate the affected people to leave the affected villages, Government should immediately restore basic services for the families especially the vulnerable groups including the over 500 women, 293 children, 170 elderly and 90 widows currently languishing in the villages with no means to access shops, water, schools, health services, no access roads and foot-passes and living at the risk of being attached by dangerous snakes and hungry dogs. “The help to these people must start now.” Micheal Businge, AFIEGO’s Bunyoro Field Coordinator, said yesterday.

“Continued lamentation of government that there are no funds to complete the compensation and relocation when the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) being implemented stops the affected families from using their land for any development and the failure to provide social/basic services to the local communities in the area is clear evidence of an oil curse and only serves to confirm the level of impunity for constitutional violations and human rights abuses amidst oil development. These deliberate violations are against Article 26 of the Constitution which protects people’s rights to property and states that the right to property can only be interfered with only after payment of fair and adequate compensation to the affected person”, Ms. Resty Namuli-AFIEGO’s legal officer, said.

The above violations have made it so far impossible for other groups to provide a lasting solution to the suffering being faced in the refinery area. In addition to going to court, AFIEGO together with the group leaders of the affected people has moved in to support the roofing of the houses of the elderly women who had started living in the open, transporting the sick to Hoima town for treatment, supporting the repair of the broken boreholes, sensitizing the people to avoid mortgaging their possible future compensation through loans, supporting the affected families who have some land outside the refinery area with fruit tree seedlings (mangoes, ovacados, guavas, oranges, pawpaws and others) and clearing foot passes from the nearest feeder roads to some households. These are not complete solutions but they are intended to mitigate the suffering and misery as we wait for the court decision to stop the government’s excesses.
Our response
As the affected people remain stranded, AFIEGO is working with the group leaders of the PAPs to identify the most vulnerable people/families and availing them with any badly needed help possible. In the last one month alone, AFIEGO has helped 31 women and children to get to health centres in Hoima for some treatment, supported a repair of a borehole, encouraged 8 families to send back their children to the nearest primary schools and persuaded other 11 families to avoid loans. AFIEGO, under her public litigation for social justice and human rights initiative is facilitating over 80 families to attend Kampala High Court hearings regarding their refinery case. We need your support to keep the people actively involved.
“Last month, AFIEGO was able to facilitate 30 affected families to attend the first hearing where the High Court ordered against any evictions of the affected people. After the case hearing, we travelled with the people back to Kabaale and visited 39 families considered to be at the highest risk. We found, the number one priority for everyone we talked to was accommodation, food, drugs, and education for children and fear for wild animals. They are already hurting as many of their children have missed the whole year of 2014 and not sure whether they will go in 2015 because the children either cannot walk long distances through the bushes to the nearest schools or they can’t walk on empty tummies as they have no food. They also can’t send the children to schools while still in Kabaale as they expect to be displaced any day. Those who risk planting short term crops such as beans and sweet potatoes are also in tears as the animals cannot allow them grow to maturity. If you visit Kabaale, the community’s suffering is beyond any imagination”

To make it worse, many of the families are being evicted from the trading centres where they have been taking refuge after running away from their falling houses located in the bushes where neighbours left them some months ago. Now, the people who got their compensation and left their houses in the trading centres have come back to take away the materials from the houses to build new ones where they shifted to. Sadly, it is mostly widows and children who are being pushed out of those houses. The current help we are giving is just a drop in the ocean” AFIEGO is currently designing projects that will enable us increase our capacity to engage with the government and other stakeholders to mitigate the human rights violations.
“While the new 2014/15 budget should give hope to provide funds to complete the compensation of the affected people, we doubt the readiness of the government to consider the refinery affected people’s polite as a priority. Already, contrary to the Constitution, last month, the parliament dominated by the ruling party MPs including the MPs from the oil region authorised the government to access half of the annual budget (over UGX7 trillion) in the first quarter of the financial year before any discussion of the budget by the House. These are signs which clearly indicate that both the executive and parliament are not about to stick to the rules of governance and without good governance, the citizens will continue to be sacrificed by those in authority” Dickens said.

AFIEGO will continue to work to not only ease the current suffering witnessed in Kabaale “we will also work to ensure that a new law is put in place to address the injustice in compensation across Uganda” our target is to ensure that every affected citizen across the nation should be guaranteed prompt payment of fair and adequate compensation and where this fails, the court system should be accessible, reliable and affordable for everyone to access for redress with confidence and trust.

“in terms of numbers, more than a third of the affected people are still languishing in the ghost villages of Kabaale, over 78 children between the ages of 3 to 17 have missed going to school for the 2014, 53 families have no houses you can call home and no food. Mr. Kamugisha said.

About AFIEGO
AFIEGO (Africa Institute for Energy Governance) has been operating in Kabaale, Buseruka-Hoima and the Albertan Graben a whole since, 2007. We also work in the rest of the country building the capacity of communities, institutions and influencing policies to work for the citizens. The commencement of the oil refinery development process through land acquisition in Kabaale made it inevitable for us to work with the communities in the area. We are using experiences and lessons from related projects to ensure that our efforts produce maximum results for the affected people.

Media and other line staff contacts
Patience Akumu (communications-Kampala): + 254-414-571597, afiego@afiego.org
Resty Namuli (Legal education officer): +254-414-571597, afiego@afiego.org
Micheal Businge (Hoima): +256-773-769450, afiego@afiego.org

PRESS STATEMENT
22nd October 2013
For immediate release
AFIEGO to host great lakes region conference on oil governance

Africa Institute for Energy governance (AFIEGO) will, on 25th October, hold a High Level Conference entitled: “The Governance of Oil in Uganda and the Great Lakes Region.” The conference aims at carrying forward the debate on ways to ensure that oil in Uganda and the entire great lakes region works for the benefit of the people. It will be held under the theme “Oil and the protection of citizens’ rights in Uganda and the Great Lakes region” and will bring together over 100 participants to discuss and build consensus on how the new laws and policies regulating the Great Lakes region newly discovered oil, gas and mineral wealth can be used to avert the notorious oil curse, meet the needs of the citizens and transform the region.
The high level conference will be held at Hotel Africana and will bring together different stakeholders including government officials, MPs, development partners, private sector, energy experts, civil society, religious and cultural leaders, local communities, and universities. Participants will come from DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and Uganda

Dickens Kamugisha, CEO AFIEGO, explained the rationale of the conference thus: “The Albertine Graben region, where oil is located, is socially, environmentally and economically important to Uganda and all the countries of the great lakes region. It is here that we find Uganda’s seven out of ten protected areas. The area also boasts of Rivers and Lakes that are shared across borders. It is therefore necessary that the question of oil governance be handled at all levels- local, national and regional.”

AFIEGO has been at the forefront of pushing for proper oil legislation and other reforms in Uganda. Together with partners, National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and Uganda Wild Life Society (UWS), AFIEGO is currently involved in implementing a five-year Ecosystem Alliance Programme (EA) in Buliisa, Hoima and Kasese. The high level conference is a part of the organization’s tireless empowerment efforts in this programme. The programme is funded by the Netherlands government through IUCN NL, WetLands International and Both Ends.

During the high level conference, participants will benefit from presentations by experts on constitutionalism, oil laws, environment, oil development options, civil society experiences from different countries, experiences of oil affected communities amongst other pertinent topics. The experts will discuss with participants and share knowledge on how the ongoing legal, policy and institutional developments in Uganda and the region affect the oil sector. Other invaluable partners in organising this conference include Parliamentary Forum on Oil and Gas, Global Rights Alert, World Voices Uganda, Ecological Christian Organisation, Centre for Constitutional Governance, Oil Watch Network-Uganda and Publish What You Pay Uganda.

AFIEGO and other partner CSOs in Uganda and beyond have continuously engaged government, parliament, local communities and other stake holders to ensure that Uganda’s oil is used to benefit the citizens- especially the downtrodden and vulnerable communities. These efforts have culminated into the enactment of the upstream and midstream laws and the tabling of the Public Finance Bill 2012 before Parliament. Also, government is currently undertaking reforms in other relevant sectors such as environment, wildlife, fishing and investment policy. Over time, AFIEGO has worked with MPs to prepare reports and analysis on these laws. Earlier this year, AFIEGO carried out research on the extent to which oil companies honour their Corporate Social Responsibility and how this has impacted oil communities. AFIEGO has been a trail blazer in representing indigent aggrieved citizens in court and mobilizing local communities to petition Parliament and government on oil and violation of human and environmental rights. These efforts have greatly influenced the discourse on oil and development in Uganda.
“This conference is an opportunity to extend the conversation beyond Uganda and strengthen links with neighboring countries to ensure that oil benefits all citizens and promote equitable development,” Kamugisha said.

For more information contact:
Dickens Kamugisha
CEO, AFIEGO
Phone: 256782407085
256702598368
Email:dkamugisha@afiego.org

Patience Akumu
Communications Officer, AFIEGO
Phone: 256712821622
Email: pakumu@afiego.org