How African Minority groups can be saved from marginalisation

The Karimojong of North Eastern Uganda are considered a minority ethnic group. The narratives around cattle rustling with neighbours is a security concern in such communities. Photo by Irene Abalo Otto

BY IRENE ABALO OTTO

iaotto@ug.nationmedia.com

African minority rights activists have called on governments to check the roles they play in inclusion of minority groups in the development agenda at national levels. The activists believe early warning systems and monitoring of instabilities can help the marginalised communities co-exist with others peacefully.

This discussion emerged during a two day annual international conference on Ethnic Conflict Prevention using Early Warning Mechanism in Sub-Saharan Africa attended both virtually by those in Kenya, Cameroon and London and those physically present in Kampala.

Minority Rights International Group, Uganda hosted the event on Thursday and Friday last week. This brought together the various civil society organisations that agreed that for Minority ethnic and other groups to gain significant representation and have their needs tabled before decision makers, there is need to understand the underlying issues on the ground in such communities before the government makes interventions.

“Government needs to protect the land rights of indigenous and minority groups by providing tenure security in the form of land titles or certificate of ownership. Governments should also empower the minority groups economically to grow and transform their livelihoods into profitable business ventures,” says Richard Businge, an advisor to the Kingdom of Bunyoro and an independent consultant on African culture.

The teams of 35 representatives in Uganda agreed that governments in Africa should have coordinated voices on concerns of the ethnic minority.  

According to Agnes Kabajuni of Minority Rights International in Kampala, governments need to understand the background and current situation of minority communities to have tailored programmes that can benefit, rather than disorganise their original means of livelihoods. Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is an international human rights organisation founded with the objective of working to secure rights for ethnic, national, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples around the world.

Ms Kabajuni says each minority group in the region have unique identities and need the understanding of government institutions before they take any development projects to their area.

“If they are cattle keepers like in the Karimojong region, what can be done to help them have a better life while having their cattle as a treasure and something of value to them? The question is how can we help them see the cattle that they have as a resource for educating their girl child instead of only paying dowry? But it required an understanding of these communities and their way of life” says Ms Kabajuni.

 She adds that knowledge management and the aspect of joint advocacy using a network of people who value citizen driven approach can help change perceptions and understanding of minority groups in Africa.

 “I think the thematic areas should be driven by research. There are lots of conflicts related to the livelihoods of the minority groups,” says Businge.

He adds;

“Another thing I have seen in some communities like I have seen among Basongora is that there is a need to understand these people. Building the indigenous groups that are few in number to keep their land as a main resource for their livelihoods.” The other minority ethnic groups in Uganda include the Ik in northeastern Uganda.

The CSOs in Kenya and Uganda believe that networking can be a solution to the challenges facing the minority groups

A Turkana homestead in Kenya. Photo by Irene Abalo Otto.

“We need to have a uniform ideology in our networks and solve the question of knowledge that can be solved by research,” Businge stresses.

Ms Catherine Anena, a lecturer at Makerere University School of Gender, says that away from conflicts, and as a lesson from the lockdown, people need to serve all classes of people in the region.

“Lockdown measures and school closures affect girls and women differently and may have long-term negative consequences, ” Anena says.  “All of these impacts are further amplified in contexts of fragility, conflict, and emergencies where social cohesion is already undermined and institutional capacity and services are limited,” she adds.  

https://womenstudies.mak.ac.ug/projects

Across the continent, neglect and hostility disproportionately targets minorities. The most marginalised people are often indigenous groups such as the Berber of North Africa and the Batwa of Central Africa among others. The Batwa (known, pejoratively as “pygmies” in Western Uganda) are one of the oldest surviving tribes in Africa, but their culture, identity and language are under increasing threat.

The traditional hunting ground of this nomadic community comprises forested areas in what is now Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The minority rights approach, however, aims to overcome this marginalization through its stress on equality, participation, and empowerment of non-dominant groups.

Inside KCCA’s draft ordinance to regulate construction and save trees.

BY IRENE ABALO OTTOiaotto@ug.nationmedia.com

KCCA’s main aim for the greenery is to save the environment and mitigate the impact of climate change on the city.

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) secured funding from the European Union to implement some recommended actions from the Kampala Climate Change Action Plan which seeks to ensure that the long term development of Kampala City takes a low carbon and sustainable path in line with KCCA’s Strategic plan 2014 – 2019 and beyond.

https://www.kcca.go.ug/news/295/developing-and-sharing-the-low-carbon-and-climate-resilient-kampala#.X2Y5dx2Lko8
Kampala Capital City Authority council is yet to meet and discuss a drafted an ordinance that seeks to regulate infrastructural development and conserve tree and plant diversity within the city. 
Inside  the Kampala City Green Infrastructure Ordinance, 2020, a copy of which I obtained, strongly specifies how green spaces will be allotted and preserved by those dealing in commercial and private infrastructure works. 
“All developments in residential areas shall allow for a minimum open green space plot coverage of forty percent of the plot. Such green space shall be open to the sky and predominantly permeable. The owner of a development in a residential area shall be required to plant at least one tree for every eighty square metres of open green space,” Reads paragraph 6 (b) of the Ordinance. Paragraph 6 (c) adds that; “All development in commercial areas shall allow for a minimum open green space plot coverage of ten percent of the plot. All development in commercial areas shall allow for a minimum of one tree for every fifteen metres along the main frontage of the development.”The draft ordinance also requires parking lots to have a minimum of one tree for every off-street parking spaces. There are also provisions for the City Authority to identify and map all infrastructure corridors in the city in order to ease movement of both underground and overhead infrastructure with minimal disruptions to the environment. “No person shall without a permit of the Authority shall pollard any tree; transplant or remove any tree on either private or public land; construct any structure around the tree or inside the the drip line of the tree.” Reads paragraph 11 (h) of the first schedule.

Context_document_Kampala_2019.pdf

Schedule nine of the Ordinance provides a permit form for anyone who would like to carry out any activity around the tree on either their private or public property. She of the terms and conditions in granting permission include; “A KCCA official must be present on site at the time of execution of the permitted activity. Replacement and planting shall be as per the urban forestry management. All tree trimming, pollarding and removal permits are valid for six months,” among other conditions. 
The Ordinance was scheduled for a second reading in a council meeting that flopped last month. Councilors say the meeting was to discuss numerous city matters but failed to convene due to some political interests. 
According to Mr. Kennedy Okello, the Executive Secretary, Planning and Works at KCCA, the city is losing its greenery to concrete daily as more infrastructure tower the city. “Before we made the none-motorized transport system, if you stood there you would just see concrete throughout. You would not see any greenery. We are losing the tree cover in the city at a very high rate. Every development that comes, the first things to be felled are the trees to pave way for infrastructure. We sat down and realized that we cannot continue to move in that direction. We want to stop the trend and reverse it using the law,” said Mr. Okello. He added;“We have very many scattered laws along planning and development which give responsibilities for different authorities and institutions to protect these trees but because they are scattered, you cannot put your hand on one law. We decided to make an ordinance to protect the green infrastructure. The initial laws were in respect to public spaces but now this ordinance encompasses both the private and public spaces.”But Mr. Okello said yesterday that since the law does not work in retrospective or backwards, those whose structures do not have match some of the requirements and specification of the ordinance will be guided on how to comply when the law comes into effect. 
He further echoes that all trees in the city belong to KCCA and should be protected as such and for anyone to cut, they have to seek permission from the Authority.  He said plans that people will submit to the authority will have to conform to the ordinance once it passes to law through the council to help mitigate the impact of climate change on the environment within the city. 

The greenery is intended to reduce pollution or complete destruction of the environment and sustainable environmentally friendly development in the city. Breach of the conditions set in the ordinance after seven days’ notice by the authority shall attract penalty of two currency points or a maximum of six months in prison or both. The first Schedule, paragraphs three and eleven of the Kampala City Green Infrastructure Ordinance, 2020, lists nineteen tree species to be protected. The trees include; drum tree, West African Cordia, Iroko or Afric and teak, budongo mahogany, white mahogany, large-leaved mahogany, udala, tamarind, bilinga, big leaf mahogany, Cuban cedar, musanga, star fruit, perfume tree, champak, spinny fiddlewood, silk floss tree, and African elemi (canarium, mupafu).A recent tree audit by KCCA recorded 53,000 trees from Kololo, Makerere and Mulago with three to five tree coverage per acre. KCCA targets to have twenty to thirty trees per acre to conserve Kampala’s greenery and mitigate climate variability.