Rice farmers chase MP from meeting after he tells them to vacate wetlands (Video)

Residents of Irabi A and B in Tademeri Sub-county Budaka District have chased their Member of Parliament Budaka county Hon. Arthur Waako Mboizi from a meeting he had organized.

Mboizi had called for a meeting at Irabi playground to explain to the locals the alternative sources of agronomy projects that the government in collaboration with the Asian Development Agency, (ADA) program had designed for them other livelihood projects as they plan to vacate the wetlands.

When Mboizi was ushered to speak to the gathering the residents turned violent and demanded that he immediately leave the area because they are not ready to vacate the wetland.

Some residents were seen casting soil to the honorable in protest as others insulted him.

The irate residents accused the MPs and leaders of conniving with the government to grab their land in the name of investors who have tuned to be land grabbers.

Residents think that leaders are planning to sell their ancestral land and have vowed to shed blood while fighting to defend their precious land.

Mboizi while commenting on the incident condemned the act of violence and called on the parish leadership to come on board and talk so that the money allocated to Budaka district doesn’t go back to the national treasury.

‘’We are not going to put politics into this and if anybody thinks by me being so active on this program I should not be voted in the next Kisanja let it be but the project must go and the people must benefit, the few who are opposing it will be isolated’’ Mboizi roared.

He said the Asian Development Agency,(ADA) program is meant to give farmers other options, but it seems the natives have been agitated by their leaders adding that no amount of violence will deter him.

‘’I am calling upon the local leadership of Irabi to come over and we talk if they can deliver a message to the people because climate change is real and conditions of climate change cannot change, because if we want to make our environment friendly there certain things we need to do."

"This project is worth Shs10 billion shillings for Budaka, we cannot let that project go away because of some few individuals with selfish interests. The project must go on without fear or favor," he added.

According to Mboizi, the project is targeting over 160 families with all kinds of agronomy projects which are friendly to the environment.

This incident comes barely a fortnight when the same residents chased the district officials who had gone to meet them over the same.

Whereas the wetlands are among the most important natural resources in Uganda because they mitigate climate change human activity has been mainly blamed on the degraded wetlands in the Districts of Budaka, Pallisa,Butaleja, Butebo, Kibuku in Bukedi sub-region where wetlands such as Mpologoma, Namatala, and Limoto, Komorotot have not been spared.

https://youtu.be/3h9knyihgzU