24st/June/2024, Kampala, Uganda.
AS EVERY UGANDAN, our attention has been drawn to the ongoing evictions being undertaken by NEMA-Uganda in the name of reclaiming and restoring wetlands across Kampala City, allegedly occupied illegally by various sections of the Community. This exercise has affected thousands of vulnerable urban poor in places like Ganda-Nasere, Nansana along Lubigi Wetland attracting both national and international attention, rightly so, has been characterized by destruction of property, disruption of livelihoods at all imaginable levels, with grave repercussions on the compounded vulnerability of women and children. We, undersigned organisations and individuals alike, denounce this ongoing NEMA evictions/operations clad in a show of power and force, devoid of and in total disregard of the safeguards on fundamental rights and freedoms set out in the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995. These evictions, more so, the processes witnessed before, during and after they are executed are short of Uganda’s domestic, regional and international human rights standards demanded of States during evictions.
