Bobi Wine attacks NEMA for "selectively" evicting people from wetlands
The leader of the National Unity Platform Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has lashed out at the government and law enforcement agencies for destroying businesses and razing structures purportedly built in Lubigi and other environmentally-sensitive areas.
On Tuesday, environment law enforcement officers led by Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and police personnel, as well as officials from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), descended onto the wetland at Lubigi wetland in Rubaga Division of Kampala,
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Armed with guns, hoes, sticks, and machetes (pangas), the officials embarked on enforcing an order to evict encroachers from the degraded wetland.
The encroachers had constructed homes and grown food and cash crops in the water catchment area.
Kyagulanyi said whereas protecting the environment is a legitimate objective, he cannot fail to observe that the victims, as usual, are low-income earners already struggling to make ends meet after the crippling Covid-19 lockdown.
"It is regrettable that the regime continues to selectively apply the law against the poor and 'people without connections' while sparing and protecting the rich, regime officials and their agents in private business who have encroached on tracts of wetlands and reclaimed lakes across the country with untold impunity," said Kyagulanyi.
In response, NEMA noted that the environment is a public good which must benefit the majority, within provisions of the law.
"Lubigi wetland is being restored so that it can perform its ecological functions for instance water filtration and storage for safe consumption of the majority. The exercise at Lubigi continues with restoration of the core sections of the wetland through blocking channels, removal of alien vegetation and pulling down of illegal structures," said the authority.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, wetlands contribute to water purification, de-nitrification and detoxification, waste water treatment, and provision of food such as fish.
