Ronald Kalyango reported in New Vision on June 17, 2010 that government plans to provide rural electricity to Bushenyi and Rukungiri districts to boost agriculture and eradicate poverty. The reporter added that the electricity will cost money and users will be trained on how to use it efficiently. He added that installation will destroy land, crops and trees. The announcement was made by candidates running for re-election in Rukungiri district. The areas to be covered include Kyatoko, Kagunga and Kyaruyenje. These are areas that parliament voted to include in Rukungiri municipality two or so weeks ago.
In conversation with a senior official in Rukungiri Town Council a year or so ago, I was informed very clearly that once the area is incorporated into the municipality, the authority will divide it up into plots for sale to the highest bidder to generate resources with which to develop the area, meaning that peasants will have to be dispossessed.
The decision by Rukungiri district council to upgrade Rukungiri town into a municipality was taken in an emergency session without consulting the people involved. The entire Kagunga sub-county where some of the poorest people in Rukungiri district live has been incorporated into the municipality. The moment the municipality comes into force land will automatically be owned by the Municipal Council and former owners will become tenants on terms and conditions set by the municipality.
The decision to announce the provision of rural electricity immediately after the passage of Rukungiri municipality by parliament confirms the fear that the overall goal is to dispossess the poor, voiceless and politically powerless people that live in the area. Providing electricity which the peasants would not afford anyway will make the rural areas attractive to rich buyers. The municipality will set stiff conditions, taxes and other charges unaffordable by peasants who will then sell their land at giveaway prices (disguised as compensation) under pressure to avoid their land being confiscated for failure to meet municipal terms and conditions.
What the people in the areas affected by the municipality need is assurance that they will not sell their land under duress. Then they will need help with extension services, subsidies and appropriate technology to improve agricultural productivity on their land. This is a safer way to eradicate poverty.
Installing, maintaining and paying electricity fees and other related charges are beyond the means of peasants in these areas. Electricity is easy to sell in theory to ignorant people. The devil is in the details which Ronald Kalyango did not cover in his report.
Apart from extension services, subsidies and appropriate technologies (solar and wind energy etc), the people in these areas need all weather roads with permanent – not temporary wooden – bridges, environmental protection through tree planting, restoration of wetlands, health clinics with trained staff and adequate medicines and supplies, clean water and sanitation facilities and school meals to keep children in school and improve their performance especially girls. With good transport, agricultural produce can be taken to towns for processing.
I am appealing to the people of Rukungiri district especially those that have been incorporated into the municipality to study this government plan very carefully, get the details and understand all the implications in the short, medium and long term. We are trying to avoid a situation where people and their representatives will be saying – too late – that they did not understand what was in store for them and future generations when they agreed to go along with the government decision. Prevention is always better than cure.