Overview

Uganda is one of the sub-saharan countries to recently start oil extraction. To set up the petrochemical industrial park, the government of Uganda acquired 2,957 hectares of land in Kabale. The petrochemical industrial park is to include Uganda’s second international airport, The East Africa Crude Oil export pipeline hub, an oil refinery, warehousing facilities and logistics, polymer and fertilizer industries as well as agro-processing plants. Among the 13 villages affected are Kyapaloni, Kigaaga B, Kabale A and Kabale B, all in Kabale Subcounty. The resettlement action plan conducted in 2014 affected 7,118 people who had to been compensated for the acquisition of their land. Those that asked for relocation or rejected the offered compensation were left to languish in ghost villages, and suffered food shortages with little or no access to clean water, schools and health care services. Many other households who opted for cash compensation realized that it was insufficient to purchase land equivalent to what they had given up for the petrochemical industrial park.