Police used teargas to block Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi from touring the Lubigi wetland site, where National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) recently evicted residents for illegally occupying the wetlands.
After addressing residents, Ssenyonyi moved to start touring the wreckage, but Police moved swiftly to block him and the two groups engaged in an exchange that lasted five minutes, before teargas canisters were thrown to disburse the residents who were protesting Police’s actions of blocking Ssenyonyi from touring the wreckage.
Ssenyonyi who was whisked away to safety by parliamentary security, urged the residents to fight all forms of human rights violations, saying evictions of this nature don’t discriminate against political affiliations.
He also questioned NEMA’s discriminative eviction saying, “I have passed by the same place and there is still a Police station and fuel stations, so if the evictions are going on, why should they discriminate? There are known wetlands in Uganda that are full of factories, these ones aren’t being bothered. Perhaps it is because the owners of these businesses have connections to Government or they are employed in Government. That is why we are asking ourselves, why discriminate among citizens in Uganda?.”
He revealed that he held a discussion with Barirega Akankwasah, Executive Director of NEMA and asked him to hold discussions with residents and reach a common ground before such evictions are carried, other than taking eviction decisions in their cool offices without first assessing the situation on ground.
“I even asked him if they had held discussions with you people and I cautioned him that as NEMA, it isn’t good for the officials to sit in their offices and work on remote control. These are Ugandans and you have been collecting taxes from them, why not go on ground and hold talks with them? You listen to them and they also listen to you so that you have a point of convergence instead of unleashing Police on the locals who ended up destroying people’s property,” said.
