Over 100 residents of Ntusi Sub County in Sembabule district are demanding compensation for their crops destroyed by cattle belonging to Kasese RDC- Captain Kyama Mwesigye.
The residents have petitioned the office of the district chairperson Herman Sentongo over the destruction. Last week, more than 3000 cattle belonging to Mwesigye strayed into residents' gardens in Kyembogo, Shura, Kanoni, Mitima and Lwetamu parishes in Ntusi Sub County and destroyed their crops.
In their petition to the district chairperson Herman Sentongo, the residents claim that armed guards deployed by Mwesigye, threatened to shoot them when they tried to stop his cattle from destroying their plantations.
Emmanuel Kamiyingo, the Ntusi sub county chairperson says that over 100 farmers lost their crops in the invasion. He says most of the affected people in Ntusi Sub County entirely depend on their plantations for survival and are now headed for severe famine.
Kamiyingo says that this is not the first time the RDC's cattle are escaping from his unfenced farm to destroy residents crops. Herbert Kisitu, the Ntusu sub county NRM Chairperson accuses Captain Kyama's armed guards of displacing people from their plantations.
Kisitu claims that over 30 people were recently forced to abandon their plantations at Mitima and Kanoni after Mwesigye's armed guard threatened to shoot them.
According to Kisitu, the residents are now homeless and have no food because their plantations were destroyed by Capt. Mwesigye's guards and cattle.
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Kisitu says that the residents have for the last 25 years complained of the same problem but the RDC has failed to find a lasting solution to their dilemma.
Fina Nakiyingi 57 one of the affected residents claims that she lost two acres of sweet potatoes she had planted this season with the hope of raising school fees for her orphaned grand children.
Nakiyingi lost her husband five years ago to HIV Aids. She has threatened to kill the cattle should they invade her garden again. Mwesigye has admitted that his cattle destroyed the resident's garden and has promised to fence off his farm.
He however, says that a fence he erected around his 4 square miles farm was destroyed by some residents creating a big hole that enable the cattle to stray into people's gardens.
Mwesigye has accepted to compensate some of the residents who lost their crops in the invasion.
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A meeting convened over the weekend to resolve the stand off between Mwesigye and the affected farmers ended prematurely as angry residents threatened to assault him.
