More than 1000 residents of Gulu affected by the construction of the Gulu-Atyak-Nimule road are threatening to drag government to court action unless they are compensated. They want government to compensate them for the property they are likely to lose when the construction of the 104 kilometer road stretch begins.
Okwanga Latigo, the Chairperson of the complainants says that Uganda National Roads Authority-UNRA carried out evaluation of their property with the view of compensating them but they have waited in vain. Okwanga says they later learnt that UNRA only compensated people who are affected from Atyak but left out those in Gulu Municipality.
He says they are now planning to secure a court injunction against the construction of the Gulu-Atyak-Nimule road unless their grievances are resolved.
// Cue in: “No work should be done…”
Cue out “…nobody can deprive our property” //
Okwanga says they want government to compensate them for the buildings and crop plantations that will be destroyed during the construction of the road. Abraham Byandala, the Minister of Works says government set aside 2.9 billion shillings to compensate the affected people.
He says of the 2.9 billion shillings government will spend 1.9 billion shillings to compensate people who are affected by the construction of the road from Gulu town. Byandala says the ministry delayed the process of compensating victims from Gulu town because the local authorities made conflicting reports on the payment.
He claims that Gulu Municipal Council Authorities wrote to the Ministry of Works stating that there’s no need to compensate people in Gulu town. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni yesterday launched the construction of the Gulu-Atyak-Nimule road. The construction is jointly funded by the World Bank and Japan International Corporation Agency-JICA at a cost of 214 billion shillings.
