Nobody came to our rescue: pain and anguish in Albertine Graben

The rural village of Kapaapi, Bugahya county, Hoima district has turned into a crucible of violence after 1,000 families live under the constant threat of being evicted. They are scared of cartels that often hire rogue UPDF, police, and private security firms to evict communities from their lands in the oil-rich Albertine Graben.

EMMANUEL MUTAIZIBWA spent six months conducting an investigation and discovered several disturbing issues.

In this first of two-part series, he exposes how an intricate web of power and profit has leveraged its proximity to the state and transnational oil companies to gain access to large chunks of land in the Albertine region through ruthless tactics.

A 2023, etter authored by Philippe Groueix, the general manager, TotalEnergies Exploration and Production, revealed that the oil firm has an equitable interest in 1,030 hectares where it proceeded to construct a 96-km feeder pipeline adjacent to the homes of the communities in Kapaapi.

The feeder pipeline is a major component of the Tilenga project. The Tilenga project is jointly owned and operated by TotalEnergies in partnership with the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).

The production of crude oil at Tilenga is planned to reach 230,000 barrels of oil per day at peak, and the facility could produce an estimated 1.4 billion barrels of crude oil for at least 20 to 30 years, bringing in a total revenue of $60bn.

Based on several interviews conducted with locals and high-profile individuals, evictions have been precipitated by the expected exploration of the Kasuruban block, which straddles Kapaapi and extends to Buliisa and Masindi.

UNOC was issued a licence in the exploration block, which has an estimated 600 million barrels of crude oil. The Albertine Graben, a geological cradle, races across the rugged cliffs of the East African Rift Valley and Lake Albert, a transboundary freshwater lake that hugs the Uganda-Congo border.

**OIL’S POISONED CHALICE **

Across May, I visited Kapaapi, a rural area dotted with mud and wattle structures. The resentment and angst was palpable in the area. Earlier, on February 10, 2023, a coterie of security personnel consisting of the UPDF, Uganda Police, who were identified by their military attire, and guards from Magnum, a private security company, raided this area and carried out an eviction.

Among those identified by eyewitnesses were Jackson Patrick Bogere, the former district police commander and Michael Kyakashari, the deputy RDC,. They raided the Kapaapi area in vehicles whose numberplates were UG/425C, UBA 764/S and UAP 445/J, hurled teargas canisters and set homes ablaze in a rampage that lasted three hours.

This resulted in the eviction of 1,000 families across seven villages in Kigorobya sub-county. These details are part of the evidence in the three lawsuits filed by displaced residents at the Hoima High court.

The evidence is also captured in the letter authored by Attorney General Sam Mayanja, who at the time was Lands state minister. It is addressed to Margaret Wangadya, the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission

**NOWHERE TO GO **

“I came here in the year 2000 with my family, and we continue to live in fear, and sometimes we have to sleep in the bushes at night, and we are haunted by the evictions that happened in 2023,” said Samwiri Kataaza, whose cracked voice betrayed fear and trepidation.

Aerial view of a well pad within Uganda’s Albertine Graben in

Buliisa District, Uganda

A fortnight before the raid on their village in 2023, Kataaza and several others were abducted. They were then arraigned before the Chief Magistrates Court in Hoima on fabricated charges such as threatening violence and remanded to prison.

“They [soldiers and police] raided our homes in the dark of the night while some of us were in prison. They set homes on fire, raped women, stole livestock, and others were eaten by soldiers. My home had iron sheets. One of the invaders keeps his livestock in my house. We have returned to the land, and they are threatening to harm us,” Kataaza, said.

This tactic, where community leaders are imprisoned, has often been used during other evictions, including the 2014 evictions in Rwamutonga, in Hoima district, and documented by several human rights organisation.

The men imprisoned were compelled to hand over their land under duress and pay about Shs 7 million to gain their freedom. Those who did not comply were imprisoned for six months and later released on bail.

The victims of the evictions, including women who were raped, reported these incidents to the nearby Kigorobya police post, but the officers referred them to Kitoba police station. A case, whose police file number is GEF003/2023, was registered. Some locals, including Kataaza, returned to their land, but only after the intervention of Mayanja.

What he witnessed was so moving that he issued a presidential directive and sanctioned the arrest of those accused of masterminding the evictions. The minister listed Nabasa, William Ndahura Gafayo; Asiimwe Byangire; Oromo Ruzira, the former Hoima district police commander; Jackson Bogere; and the assistant resident district commissioner of Hoima district, Michael Kyakashari.

These instructions to arrest these officers are part of the letter he authored to UHRC in July 2025. Nothing has been done to date.

**AN IMPASSE **

Most of the land at the centre of the conflict was owned by the family of the late Tito Lukyalekere Byangire. Out of 32 children of the late Byangire, 28 have authored a petition supporting the prosecution of those involved in the eviction.

For example, Tito Byangire’s family’s letter is addressed to Phiona Barungi, a senior special aide to the president. The letter corroborates graphical details of the raid. Despite calls to have them arrested, Bogere was redeployed and serves as the district police commander of Pader, Kyakashari was deployed to Kabale district, where he serves as deputy resident district commissioner.

Mayanja told Wangadya that immediately after he departed Kapaapi, Nabasa redeployed UPDF and Police officers. However, Nabasa, who spoke to *The Observer *in May 2026, revealed that he got a lease on part of Tito Byangire’s land 10 years ago. This land is adjacent to the TotalEnergies feeder pipeline, and usually such acquisitions by oil firms push the value of land to rise.

“I found half of the title was occupied by the community, and half of it was for the family [Byangire] without locals. I have been on the land for more than three years,” he revealed.

Nabasa claims that Mayanja failed to resolve the conflict. “The problem was complicated by Mayanja. I have never participated in evictions. The court did not see the evidence, and I still have six years of my lease pending, and I have no problem with the [Byangire] family members; these people are there illegally, and they came in 2025. I have a garden of maize; they harvested all my maize. They have stolen my herd of 100 cows.”

This article was produced as part of the Bertha Challenge Fellowship. In the second part, we explore how international companies have exploited the volatile situation to shortchange locals.

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