By JULIUS OCUNGI
Two members of parliament, Kilak County MP, Mr Gilbert Olanya and Amuru Woman MP Ms Lucy Akello almost met abrupt deaths when they went to Apaa Ogali village in Amuru district to mediate in a land dispute measuring about 6,000 hectares.
The dispute pits the residents against a one Yosani Ojwang and an Australian investor, Linton Brimblecombe.
ALLEGED CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
- Yossani Ojwang sells part of his land, including a part that belongs to other locals, to Linton Brimblecombe.
- Brimblecombe establishes a maize farm, Omer Farming Company Limited. The local communities accuse him of also encroaching on their land.
- Local women accuse area police of assault following an alleged night raid on the village last Thursday.
- Mr Olanya and Ms Akello and other local leaders pay a visit to the village to mediate the dispute.
- The MPs meet with the aggrieved residents.
- They then move to talk to Ojwang’s family.
- A group of more than 10 people from Ojwang’s family stops them with spears, bows and arrows, who tell them not to step on their land.
- Police intervenes to restrain the armed men, who are poised to attack the MPs.
- Under police protection, the MPs are able to speak to Ojwang’s family and the investor.
What they say
Mr Brimblecombe, the investor denied buying the land.
“I don’t love to see violence, especially on claims that my investment is making locals uncomfortable. I have never bought any land here and I am just renting the said land from Ojwang’s family,” he said.
He said he would meet the residents over the matter.
Mr Olanya told Confessions256; “This is a small matter that didn’t need Ojwang’s relatives and children to pick up arms against their leaders and threaten to kill them. We need to sit and see where their land ends and where the locals claim theirs is.”
Mr Epedu David, the officer in-charge of crimes at Amuru Police Station, denied knowledge of the said raids in the area and promised to investigate the matter.
“We have not been formally informed of any arrest and assault on women made in this area; we, however, encourage residents to report the matters with evidence so that we follow it up.”
Recent land conflicts
- Acholi sub-region is becoming a hot spot for violent land fights, which, if not addressed immediately, could result in a crisis.
- In Lamwo District at the weekend, six people were admitted to Kitgum hospital after they sustained injuries during another land fight between the Pawaja clan in Paloga Sub-county and the Pobira clan in Wigweng village, Madi- Opei Sub-county.
- These confrontations come barely three weeks after women in Apaa Parish, Pabbo Sub-county, Amuru District, stripped before ministers Daudi Migereko and Aronda Nyakairima over the boundary demarcation conflict between Adjumani and Amuru districts.
- Last month, Agago District chairperson Peter Odok Oceng castigated police and cultural leaders for their alleged negligence in the land clashes which left a four-year-old boy dead and 13 other people injured.
- A land dispute between residents of Aciki village in Ogong Parish in Kotomor Sub-county and those from Lukwangole Parish in Patongo Sub-county left 24 people arrested by police. More than 60 grass-thatched huts were also razed in the attack, leaving properties worth millions of shillings destroyed. Last year, 30 grass thatched huts were razed after locals in Aciki attacked Luwangole clan over the same dispute.
Possible root cause of the conflicts
Acholi sub-region, which comprises Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Lamwo, Nwoya and Pader districts has had several flashes of land conflicts since 2006 when the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels were kicked out of the area.
The warring communities are part of an estimated 1.8 million people in the region who lived in displaced persons camps for more than a decade.
Returnees, however, found their land occupied by strangers, family members with no rights to the land.
Lost or shifted boundary landmarks such as trees and mark stones have exacerbated land disputes.
CONFESSIONS256 