Police Investigates Shooting by NFA Enforcement Team in Kikuube

The police in the Albertine are investigating circumstances under which two people were shot by National Forestry Authority (NFA) enforcement team in Kikuube district.

One of the victims identified as Ronald Munyasonza, 50, was shot dead while his son, Bosco Twikunda, 23, was shot and critically injured in the leg when the NFA enforcement team comprising of the Uganda peoples Defense forces (UPDF) and the police reportedly opened fire at them while at their home in Rwenkobe village, Kaseeta parish in Kabwoya sub-county on Sunday afternoon at around 12:30 p.m. 

Rwenkobe is one of the villages adjacent to the Bugoma central forest reserve in Kikuube district.

UPDF and police personnel raided the home after allegedly being tipped off that he purportedly had five sacks of charcoal believed to have been burnt from Bugoma forest.   

Though Munyasonza pleaded and told the enforcement team that the charcoal he had burnt was from his eucalyptus trees, the officers opposed his submissions and accused him of being behind the depletion of Bugoma forest claiming he had burnt the charcoal from the forest.

The enforcement team ordered him to load the sacks onto their pickup truck but he resisted.

This resulted into a scuffle that prompted the enforcement team to shoot Munyasonza killing him instantly. His son was equally shot and critically injured on his left leg.

The body of Muyasonza was picked and conveyed to the Kyangwali health center IV mortuary for postmortem while Twikunda was rushed to Hoima regional referral hospital where he is currently admitted.  

Felix Akankwatsa, LC1 Chairperson for Rwenkobe village faulted NFA officials for conducting operations in people’s homes instead of cracking down on illegal charcoal burners and loggers in Bugoma forest. 

He wants police to intensify operations to ensure that the culprits are apprehended for justice to prevail.   

Julius Hakiza, the Albertine region Police Spokesperson has confirmed the incident started that after committing the gruesome act, the NFA enforcement team that was conducting the operation immediately fled to an unknown destination adding that the hunt for them is ongoing. 

He says the enforcement team fled and left behind a motorcycle that they were using to conduct the operation. 

The motorcycle whose registration number could not be established by press time was set ablaze by angry residents in the area.

Aldon Walukamba, the communications manager at NFA when contacted for a comment denied the involvement of National forestry Authority.

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Bugoma forest reserve is currently facing massive depletion despite being highly guarded by the National Forestry Authority (NFA).

The Central Forest Reserve, covering 410 square kilometres of a protected area, and a stretch of forest measuring 40 kilometres, is a tropical forest in Kikuube district, gazetted in 1932 and taken over by the National Forestry Authority in 2003. 

It is endowed with a high Biodiversity with 24 species of mammals, 465 species of trees, 359 species of birds, 289 species of butterflies and 130 species of moths.  

The mammals include monkeys, chimpanzees, buffaloes, Uganda Kobs and elephants.    

A 2012 Chimpanzee census discovered that 10 per cent of Uganda’s Chimpanzee population was in Bugoma forest.   

The forest is also a migratory route for wild animals connecting to game parks and a catchment area for rivers that drain into Lake Albert and river Nguse where government plans to build a hydro power dam.   

Situated near the Kingfisher oil field, the Forest is expected to play a crucial role in absorbing the greenhouse gas emissions during oil drilling and also act as a rain modifier to boost agriculture.    In 2016, Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom leased 22 square miles to Hoima Sugar Limited. 

The sugar factory leased close to 22 square miles of the contested Bugoma Central Forest reserve land from the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom for sugarcane growing for 99 years.      

However, the National Environment Management Authority -NEMA found 13 of the 22 square miles, unfit for a sugar plantation and recommended their preservation since it’s a wetland and forest reserve.       

As a result, NEMA allowed Hoima Sugar factory to cultivate sugarcane on the remaining 9.24 square miles covering the grassland, establish an urban center on 1.26 square miles, an eco-tourism center on 1.97 square miles, and restore 3.13 square miles of the forest reserve.        

They also recommended the preservation of another 0.156 hectares for the cultural site and 6.17 square miles as a natural forest.   

However, several conservationists have opposed the move, saying the giveaway is not only a threat to the ecosystem and endangered species but it is likely to hurt tourism activities, which are a source of revenue for the local communities and the country.      

Bunyoro Kitara has since explained that the land leased to Hoima Sugar is not part of Bugoma forest but the Kingdom’s ancestral land that is adjacent to the forest reserve.