Dispossessing Rukungiri’s voiceless peasants is very disturbing

Some of us who grew up in conditions of extreme poverty, injustice (lack of fairness and equity), powerlessness and therefore political voicelessness were driven to study hard so that upon graduation we could help to dismantle the instruments of oppression, exploitation, marginalization, authoritarianism and dictatorship, and human rights abuses.

Our resolve was strengthened by provisions in the United Nations charter (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). The United Nations Charter states in part that “We the peoples of the United Nations [are] determined to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women … and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”.

Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.

In my home area of Rujumbura County in Rukungiri District of southwest Uganda, the colonial indirect rule system retained pre-colonial chiefs of Bahororo (Batutsi from Rwanda via their short-lived Mpororo kingdom) who arrived in Rujumbura around 1800. With military experience, a standing army and subsequent collaboration with Arab slave hunters and European weapons, Bahororo new comers who had come seeking refuge quickly crushed resistance of otherwise peaceful people whose ancestors entered the area 3000 years ago. For example “Makobore, the king of Rujumbura, employed them [Arabs] in his raids against Butumbi and Kayonza. … Weaker societies were raided for slaves while interstate warfare became rampart” (B. A. Ogot 1976).

The defeated people who were given a common name of Bairu or slaves (previously they were known by their clan names) lost their grazing land to the new ‘lords’ who used it to graze their long horn cattle resulting in the disappearance of short horn cows owned by the defeated indigenous people now called Bairu (slaves). The defeated people were forced to provide food, drinks and labor to their new rulers in exchange for so-called unspecified protection. When compensation was given to Bairu for their goods and services, they received infertile cows or bulls, the intention being to prevent them from accumulating wealth since infertile cows and bulls do not reproduce.

Under colonial rule, Bahororo chiefs continued to extract tribute from Bairu slaves and when you add on colonial taxes, lower commodity prices than import prices, church tithes and free labor on public works you get an idea of the level of exploitation and impoverishment that Bairu people lived under.

When missionary schools were established and open to all, children from poor households saw an opportunity to improve their lot. Generally children from poor families in spite of all sorts of limitations did better than those from relatively well off households. The former had an incentive to get out of the poverty trap. Children from wealthy families did not have such a motive because they had all that they needed.

As pre-independence elections approached based on democracy and majority rule, Bairu people with a large majority of voters and qualified people to compete were sure of victory. The minority ruling class of Bahororo was not ready for that. They fabricated a story that a section of Bairu had stolen the cow belonging to Kigezi’s Constitutional Head, killed it and ate the meat. This created a very serious political situation which gave an opportunity to the Bahororo minority group to hunt down, assault and harass targeted individuals and households forcing many to migrate and others to go into exile. Those who stayed were silenced and ordered to vote as dictated by the candidate from the minority Bahororo group with the backing of the Protestant Church and civil administration. Since then Bahororo have clung to political power which they have used to give their people good jobs in government and business in Uganda. Right now the Member of Parliament is a Muhororo, two presidential advisers are Bahororo and senior servants from the area are Bahororo although Bairu have by far more and better educated people.

As time passed, Bairu began to demand their political, economic and social rights. In order to weaken this mushrooming political threat, there are stories from local observers that Bahororo initiated the idea of expanding the Township into areas mostly occupied by Bairu and upgrade the Township into a Municipality. Two days before parliament was scheduled to meet to approve new municipalities that had been recommended by the Ministry of Local Government in advance allowing discussions between representatives and constituents, Rukungiri district representatives without consulting the people they represent met in an emergency session, passed a resolution recommending upgrading Rukungiri Township into a Municipality. This district Council decision was taken on a Friday incorporating very large rural areas that were deliberately demarcated to target Bairu peasants who form a large majority. The following Monday, Rujumbura Member of Parliament, Major General Jim Muhwezi – not the Minister of Local Government that has mandate for municipal matters – presented Rukungiri District Council rushed resolution to Parliament which went ahead and approved it. The Speaker of Parliament has so far declined to respond to questions about why he allowed a member of parliament to table the resolution to parliament which is the responsibility of the minister of local government.

The critical, worrying and disturbing part of this rushed decision is that once land has been incorporated into a municipality, ownership changes hands. The municipal authority becomes the new land owner and old land owners become tenants governed by terms and conditions set by the municipal authority. These conditions are likely to introduce new taxes and other charges and set new standards such as constructing buildings with baked bricks instead of timber. Since the current land owners are poor peasants, they will not afford these new terms and conditions. Logically, they will have to leave. Under such conditions the municipal authority will give the dispossessed peasants peanuts called compensation that will be used up on consumer expenditure within no time. And people who were land owners yesterday growing food and selling a little surplus to raise cash will become landless and will no longer pause a political threat to Bahororo minority that want to rule that area for ever.

A week or so after Parliament approved Rukungiri municipality, Major General Muhwezi, Rujumbura’s current Member of Parliament announced that the area will be provided with rural electricity which he knows peasants will not afford. He was therefore inviting rich people to begin to consider buying land from dispossessed peasants. Rhetorically, his message sounds developmental – to move poor peasants out of the poverty trap. In practice it represents dispossessing Bairu peasants. The peasants know it but they are politically powerless to challenge these adverse decisions.

The above brief account explains why the measures taken to dispossess peasants are very disturbing. This is not democracy: it is dictatorship, pure and simple. The donor community that has been stressing democracy, good governance, full participation of all citizens in decisions that affect their lives, and observance of all human rights needs to help to resolve this matter and avoid nasty consequences. This is a purely political issue although some see it as a legal matter.

Let me end up by stressing that we should all live together but in conditions of peace, security and prosperity.