By Weswa Ronnie
BUDUDA
People from Mabono Sub County in Bududa district neighboring Mount Elgon National Park have been cautioned against carrying out any activities in the park until Parliament comes up with a clear decision on boundary regazzetment.
On Wednesday, 25th September, 2024, Uganda Wildlife Authorities slashed crops like beans, bananas, Irish, maize among others belonging to people neighboring the park at Mabono Sub County leaving locals complaining.
This forced a district team led by Milton Kamoti, the LCV Chairperson to visit the Sub County and intervene the following day, Thursday, 26th September.
While speaking during the meeting held at Mabono Sub County, Kamoti said that these continuous conflicts between UWA and people neighboring the Park are due to the unclear boundary between the Park and people’s land.
He says that some people believe that their land goes beyond the new boundary which was drawn in 1995 obviously contravening UWA’s position.
Kamoti urged locals to desist from digging beyond the boundary of 1995 until Parliament comes up to pronounce the right boundary which they are still waiting for up to now.
Sam Namanda and Stephen Masolo, some of the locals who lost their crops expressed their bitterness with UWA saying they should have waited for their crops to be harvested instead of cutting them down.
However, Samuel Amanya, the Chief Warden of Mount Elgon National Park, says if they wait for crops to be harvested, people will continue planting more making enforcement harder.
