The pain and anguish in the Albertine Part II

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. In this second and last part, EMMANUEL MUTAIZIBWA spent six months conducting an investigation and discovered several disturbing issues.

**A GORY HORROR **

Brig Peter Nabasa grazes his cattle on 700 acres of land, which he claims he leased out of 1,235 hectares belonging to the Byangire family. The Byangire family parcelled out another 1,050 acres to kibanja holders who have occupancy rights but do not hold a registered title.

They are protected by the Constitution and the Land Act and cannot be evicted without a court order, and they possess the right to use, sell, inherit, or formalise their occupancy on registered land. Minister Mayanja’s order to resettle the families has been supported by the commander of the UPDF Field Artillery Division, Maj Gen Dan Kakono, whose soldiers are offering protection to families that were previously evicted.

Women in this area, subjected to horrendous torture and sexual abuse during the eviction raids, carry invisible scars. While speaking on condition of anonymity, the doctor who treated these women confirmed that they were still experiencing trauma when he examined them in 2025.

Five women are willing to testify in court, but others choose to remain silent as a result of the stigma associated with rape and threats from the perpetrators of this crime. The deputy Inspector General of Government, Patricia Achan Okiria, on January 15, 2024, filed a petition before the Uganda Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU) calling for the investigation of the former Hoima District Police Commander, Patrick Bogere, on allegations of abuse and improper misconduct.

The letter states that “In February, 2023, the District Police Commander [DPC], together with the assistance of armed goons, invaded seven villages located in Kapaapi, Hoima, at night, tied up severa women, and gang-raped them before evicting them from the land.

Consequently, the affected women reported the matter at Hoima rural police station, where Bogere Jackson is the DPC. When the victims followed up the matter, the DPC threatened them with arrest and blocked them from making further appearances at the police station.”

Some of the women who encountered violence during the evictions, including two rape victims, provided these testimonies. Unknown thugs came together in large numbers with police and Magnum security guards.

I was two months pregnant, I fell on a stone and started bleeding, and I had a miscarriage and lower abdominal pain. I am a mother of nine, and we often sleep in the bushes with the children. There is no honour in that if a family member passes away, their corpses are thrown into the bushes,” revealed one of the women who was examined and whose identity was concealed for fear of reprisals.

**INCIDENTS OF RAPE **

Another victim and mother of eight, whose house was torched and livestock stolen, claimed that her husband was imprisoned and her children are out of school.

“I was raped by two people who covered my eyes with a cloth. I fell while running, and currently I suffer from severe back pain. My oldest son, who was 17 years old, was shot in the shoulder. We now live like destitutes in [the neighbouring] Buliisa district,” she lamented without disclosing her identity.

“I was five months pregnant, and I am a mother of five. I was spared from being raped, but they took my livestock, including a cow, which was roasted and eaten,” revealed another victim who was attacked on February 10, 2024, after her husband fled to hide in the bushes. Another victim, who was three months pregnant, was awoken by noises and silhouettes of soldiers.

“She lost the pregnancy and got retained products of conception, leading to a dilation and curettage [a minor surgical procedure used to open the cervix and remove tissue from the inner lining of the uterus],” reads the summary of a medical report. She claims that her children were beaten and hospitalised, and “one of the attackers was identified as the LC-I chairperson Michael Oketta, Ndahura Gafayo, who was dressed in a camouflage uniform and was armed with pangas and guns.”

Her children’s identity cards, academic records, and a motorcycle were incinerated in the fire. The victim, according to a medical report, “developed peptic ulcers, insomnia, high blood pressure and paranoid delusions”.

On February 10, 2023, at about midnight, while asleep, soldiers and police entered another woman’s house. She was assaulted and taken to the back of the house, and while pregnant, she was raped, and her house was torched. A medical report reveals that “she developed a urinary tract infection and experiences pain in the pelvic area and back and suffers from bouts of insomnia.”

At 1 am, the young woman noticed that their houses were ablaze. “The door was hit, and it fell in and injured a baby. My mother-in-law was in the house and was severely beaten. I was seven months pregnant. I was pushed out of the house naked; I got severe lower abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, and I was abducted and taken to an unknown place with my four children. All my livestock were stolen, and my children are out of school while my husband was imprisoned for five months.”

Several incidents of rape have been chronicled during evictions in the Albertine Graben. About four women claimed that they were raped in 2014 during evictions in Rwamutonga, Hoima district, when 200 families were evicted to pave the way for the construction of an oil waste treatment plant by McAlester, a US-based firm.

Arinaitwe and Company Advocates, a law firm based in Kampala, has, between 2023 and 2026, filed three separate suits in Hoima High court on behalf of the evicted families. One of the lawsuits is a public interest litigation which is seeking to hold TotalEnergies and the government of Uganda vicariously liable for the abuses the victims suffered during the eviction.

Peter Arinaitwe, the lawyer for the evicted communities in the seven villages of Kapapi, says that “our legal representation of the victims has also come at a high personal cost. We have experienced what we believe to be attempts on our lives, persistent surveillance of our movements, raids on our homes, and intimidation by unidentified individuals in suspicious vehicles. These incidents have created a climate of fear and insecurity for us and our families.”

He said the case has been deeply traumatising. A HALL OF MIRRORS The land that Asiimwe Byangire leased to Brig Nabasa was the subject of a legal dispute filed in 2021 before the Masindi District High Court at the time the senior army officer acquired it. Asimwe Byangire, as the plaintiff, had sued the local community in Kapaapi for trespass.

The petitioners claimed that, “As the court process is still ongoing, Asiimwe Byangire, who is the plaintiff, and Brig. Nabasa have decided to come and force the residents to agree and sign a [consent agreement] document to divide the land of the four villages into two parts without any written document from the court allowing them to do so.”

The locals claim that Asiimwe Byangire sought to present a forged document purporting that the defendants had entered into a consent agreement with him. It reads further, “The second part, i.e., the western part [Waaki North and Kiryatete Rukola], will be given to Brigadier Nabasa to pay back his loan, so the residents of the western part will be chased immediately without any compensation.”

The locals claim that Brig. Nabasa acquired the 700- acre leasehold after Asiimwe Byangire failed to pay a loan he acquired from the army officer. The director for complaints, investigations & legal services at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Pauline Nansamba Mutumba, told Vox Populi that UHRC’s officers in Hoima district met the complainants, but they were not willing to cooperate and preferred to wait for the decision of courts of law.

“We agreed that the office of the resident district commissioner would take the lead. I consider it ongoing. We could not interfere because of the sub judice rule, but we did offer to mediate.”

This article was produced as part of the Bertha Challenge Fellowship.

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