Uganda files a lawsuit to force landowners obstructing a regional pipeline to leave

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) is scheduled to displace 112 landowners; however, the project developers are having a difficult time getting compensation due to low-value payments, absentee landlords, and complicated landownership systems in some areas of the country. As a result, Uganda’s government is engaged in a legal battle with these landowners.

On September 16, 2024, a Ugandan court will consider a case in which the government has sued eighty individuals, attempting to force them off their land in three districts in the Greater Masaka region along the Eacop route. The developers of these properties are rushing to meet the deadlines for the nation’s first oil exports the following year.

In the 296 km Eacop stretch of Uganda, where at least 32 absentee landowners and others who rejected low-value compensation cause serious delays, landowners in the Hoima and Kyankwanzi districts were the subject of two identical cases that were also heard this week.

The 112 cases that are “under consideration for compulsory land acquisition due to issues such as untraceable individuals, landowner disputes, refusal of compensation offers, and lack of legal title” were confirmed by Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa last month when speaking to the media in Kampala.

According to Eacop representatives speaking with The EastAfrican, early civil works are nearly over, and the project is about to enter a crucial phase where the pipeline will be laid.

The coating facility in Tanzania was put into service in March, and 700 km of line pipe has already been supplied there. Work is currently being done on the 12 main camp people yards (MCPYs) and six pump stations.

“In Tanzania and Uganda, early civil works are currently underway,” Ms. Nankabirwa stated.

Three of the five MCPYs in Uganda—the ones in the districts of Hoima, Kakumiro, and Sembabule—have finished construction, while work is still ongoing at the MCPYs in Mubende and Kyotera.

The first shipment of coated pipe “is to arrive in Uganda this month,” according to Stella Amony, communication lead at Eacop Ltd, the special purpose entity in charge of overseeing the $5 billion project.

With just 96% of project-affected individuals (PAPs) in Uganda having received compensation, compared to 99% in Tanzania, the clearance of the 1,443 km Eacop route has been more slowly and contentiously done on the shorter Ugandan side of the corridor.

The pipeline corridor in Uganda is 2,740 acres over 296 km long and has 3,660 PAPs; in Tanzania, it is 10,081 acres over 1,147 km long and has 9904 PAPs eligible for compensation.

As the hearing for these lawsuits aimed at evicting the landowners begins, some of the impacted parties—who were sued for not having a representative to handle their families’ compensation or legal standing—have placed the blame for their problems on NewPlan, the company that was contracted to carry out the Eacop resettlement action plan.

For example, Sarah Namatovu claims that her family was sued for not having a will or letters of administration to the estate following the death of the legitimate proprietor. The resettlement action plan contractor pledged to pursue the processing of a death certificate in order to comply with this requirement.

“In 2018, NewPlan visited our home and advised us that the death certificate we had was not valid. This is due to the fact that the National Identity and Registration Authority did not provide the certificate, the speaker said.

In order for us to submit letters of administration and receive reimbursement, we needed assistance obtaining the correct death certificate, and NewPlan never provided it. We then learned that we were being sued for not accepting recompense despite having done so.

According to activists, the bulk of landowners are women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. If the government’s requests to evict the PAPs are granted by the courts, these individuals may become homeless, and the government will be held accountable for their inability to receive compensation due to Uganda’s intricate land tenure system.

For example, the government instructed the Administrator-General years ago to cease issuing letters of administration and certifications of no objection for estates under Buganda Kingdom, according to Peter Arinaitwe, a lawyer who represents some of the impacted parties in court.

“The estates under the Buganda Kingdom Succession Register are those that are impacted. Things concerning those properties are meant to be managed by the kingdom, he stated, adding that some Bugandans have found it challenging to get letters of administration approved by the Administrator-General’s office due to this directive.

Minister Nankabirwa claims that while legal paperwork is processed to allow landowners to access their money, the government plans to place the landowners’ payout in court.

The majority of those impacted by the Eacop litigation are known to fall into this group, and their attorney contends that the families will need letters of administration in order to collect their compensation, even if money is deposited with the court.

“The government will legally and morally have no right to use the land taken from the families without compensation if affected people cannot access their compensation, despite the Uganda Constitution of 1995 saying that the government cannot take possession of citizens’ property before compensation,” stated Dickens Kamugisha, CEO of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance.