COMMENT | NANTEZA SARAH KYOBE | President Yoweri Museveni closing month issued a second directive for the eviction of migrant cattle keepers, commonly known as Balaalo, from northern Uganda. Following the president’s eviction expose, the media has been flooded with experiences about claims of reliable land possession and somewhat just a few connected disputes.
On 26th June 2025, I even watched on TV as Balaalo members protested out of doors parliament, looking out to engage the Speaker to dwell the directive.
The Balaalo, a bunch of pastoralists before the entire lot from western Uganda, migrated to northern Uganda a decade previously trying for grazing alternatives. Experiences demonstrate that some members obtained land thru leasing or procuring, whereas others devour occupied communal land the use of spurious programs and without the consent of clan leaders, as claimed by local northern residents.
On June 1, 2025, the president enacted Govt Reveal Number 2 of 2025 concerning the eviction of the Balaalo. This expose follows a old directive, Govt Reveal No. 3, which changed into issued in 2023.
The president presents four principal causes why continued Balaalo presence is untenable:
- Insufficient fenced grazing zones and permanent water affords, even in areas the assign land has been secured.
- Ongoing land tenure conflicts in communal regions result in within strife and violence.
- Uncontrolled fencing obstructs access to principal pure resources reminiscent of rivers and fishing locations.
- Inequitable crop destruction jeopardizes meals safety and balance in host communities.
The president highlights prison and unjust practices. He asserts that, “It is prison and extremely unfair to the locals to enable free-ranging cattle in these areas, as they’ll inevitably trample and enjoy of us’s plants.”
He extra explains that during the dry season, as pastoralists perceive distant water sources for his or her cattle, the animals damage the plants in local gardens.
Relating to communal land and land gross sales, the president notes that the communal land tenure intention, blended with person land gross sales, can lead to disputes. Right here’s particularly correct when local land conflicts are exacerbated by the influx of outsiders, creating a divulge ripe for principal concerns.
The president advocates for a complete ban on the race of free-ranging cattle from out of doors these areas and calls for the criminalization of this educate. He also proposes the establishment of a committee to substantiate claims of reliable land purchases and to be determined stable fencing, permanent water sources, and unobstructed access to water.
With the auditing process, the president expresses blueprint over the legitimacy of determined forms of land acquisitions made by these pastoralists. He questions whether the pastoralists purchased clan land, household land, or inner most land, or if they were victims of deceptive gross sales by unscrupulous participants.
Individuals who devour rightfully obtained land or secured a land hire and whose farms adjust to the president’s pointers, reminiscent of having legitimate water sources and fencing, should always now not be plagued by Govt Reveal No. 2, because the audit will determined them.
These plagued by the executive expose should always go quietly and peacefully, either returning to their old keep or following the president’s suggestion to imprint land legitimately and birth elevating their cattle with impartial correct fencing and permanent water sources, provided that free-differ cattle grazing in northern and jap Uganda is illegal.
On this context, the president’s executive orders concerning the Balaalo are made in apt religion, now now not sick will, and wants to be adhered to.
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Nanteza Sarah Kyobe works with Uganda Media Centre
