Five women who are part of the over 1,000 residents who were brutally evicted from their ancestral land in Kyangwali sub county in Kikuube district have so far given birth from the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner’s-RDC offices.
The more than 1,000 residents mainly women and children were evicted from Bukinda A and B, Bukinda 2, Kavule, Bwizibwera A and B, Kyeya A and B, Nyaruhanga, Kabirizi, Nyamigisa A and B and Katoma villages among others in Kasonga parish, Kyangwali sub-county.
They have since February pitched camp at the office of the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC Amlan Tumusiime protesting delays by the government to resettle them on their ancestral land.
The residents are feuding with Kyangwali Refugee settlement over 36 square kilometres of land.
Officials from the settlement and the Office of the Prime Minister have been feuding with the residents since 2013 over the ownership of the land in question.
In September 2013, OPM officials backed by the police and UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from the contested land and resettled their Congolese refugees.
The residents were forced to settle in camps in Kyeya village in Kyangwali sub-county under very poor conditions where they have stayed to date.
In 2016 and 2018, President Museveni ordered that the evicted residents be resettled on their ancestral land. To date, his order remains ignored as the the concerned officials are yet to implement the directive.
This situation has compelled the residents to pitch camp at the RDC’s office seeking his intervention to enforce the president’s directive to resettle them on their ancestral land immediately.
Now five of the evictees have so far given birth at the offices of the Kikuube RDC between March and May.
Rosemary Nakibuka 38, gave birth to a baby girl at the RDC’s compound on March 31,2022 with the assistance of a traditional birth attendant-TBA who is also one of the evictees. She says currently the living condition is appalling since she still sleeps out in the cold with her newly born baby.
Adrine Koburondo 31, says she came and pitched camp at the RDC’s office when she had a six months pregnancy and she delivered from the RDC’s compound on Thursday last week.
Ndaisenga Kyakiyora, 35 says she gave birth to a baby girl in March but unfortunately the child died due to too much cold.
Phenias Njunwoha 52, says his wife identified as Feibe Wimana delivered from the RDC’s office under unfavorable condition in April and to date the child is not in good health since they continue to sleep out in the cold.
Birungi Asiimwe, the Kasonga parish female councilor who was evicted alongside the over 1,000 residents say the living conditions of the babies together with their mothers are deplorable.
Amlan Tumusiime, the Kikuube RDC says the condition of the women who have given birth while at his office is appalling yet he has nothing to give to them to properly look after their babies. He says such mothers together with their babies need special attention and care.
