The 1995 Uganda constitution (Chapter 4) clearly defines
and protects the rights of the marginalized and minority population groups
because inclusion of the minorities in governance is a fundamental requirement
for any democratic society.
Article 36 of the 1995 Uganda constitution goes ahead to
clearly state, “Minorities have a right
to participate in decision making processes and their views and interests shall
be taken into account in the making of the national plans and programmes.”
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| The Basongora cultural leader. |
However, no clear affirmative action has been instituted
by both the local and central governments to ensure effective participation of
the minority groups evidenced by earmarking specific resources for particular
marginalised/minority communities, having representatives of the minority
communities in the local government planning, budgeting and decision making
processes, etc.
The Uganda Local Government Act (1997) which aims at
decentralising power from the central government to the local grassroots to
ensure good governance and democratic participation doesn’t provide any
position in the district or Sub County councils for a representative of the
minority community.
In many cases, since the minority communities remain
outside the mainstream governance institutions at both local and central
governments, they have remained poor, are landless and ignorant and hence not
organised to lobby for any fruitful action from the government.
The dominant communities have even tried to forcefully
grab their communal land for the benefit of their own kinsmen for instance in
Kasese District conflicts have been widespread between the Basongora indigenous
minority tribe and Bakonjo dominant tribe over the later tribe trying to grab
communal land for the Basongora tribe.
Such conflicts have even claimed the lives of people and
have led to the invasion of an environmentally sensitive area like the Queen
Elizabeth National Park. Elective politics has worsened the situation in a
country where politics are mostly based on tribal affiliations.
Government has not made any effort to ‘ring fence’ certain positions for the minority communities like
it has done for women, youth and the disabled. For instance in Budibugyo
District both Sub County councils and the district councils are not represented
by the minority Batwa Communities.
In kasese district, the Banyabindi are not also
represented at all on both the District and Sub County Councils. Still in
Kasese, in a district council of over 50 councilors, the Basongora are only
represented by one person whose impact is almost negligible in a council where
voting on vital service delivery and other governance decisions is based on
numbers.
Since government provides all the necessary services
necessary for improved well-being of its population, areas with the highest
concentration of the minority tribes have been suffocated of basic service
delivery like roads, schools, health centers, safe water, etc. There have been
so many instances in Kasese district where health units, roads, water points,
etc are constructed in areas with the highest concentration of the dominant
community suffocating areas settled by the minority tribes of vital service
delivery.
Surprisingly, the minority communities especially in
Kasese (Basongora, Banyabindi, Banyanyanja and Bakingwe) faced both colonial
and post-colonial injustices because their ancestral lands used for communal
grazing were taken up by the government to set up Queen Elizabeth National
Park, Mubuku
and Ibuga Prison Farms, Ibuga Refugee Settlement Scheme, Hima Army Production Farm, Mubuku Irrigation Scheme, Hima Cement Factory among others.
The indigenous minority communities were displaced from their ancestral
lands without compensation and prior preparation to enable them tap on the
projects/initiatives which were set up by the government of the day.
All the above injustices which were against both national and
international legal minority rights frameworks for minority communities rights
like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights which Uganda
is a signatory and the Uganda Constitution (1995). The above injustices have also rendered the minority communities poor, illiterate and hence
vulnerable to more governance injustices.
To uplift the livelihoods of the minority communities, there is need
for an affirmative action to ensure minorities are included in all the
democratic engagements at both local and central governments. This can be done
through ‘ring fencing’ some political and maybe civil service positions for the
minorities similar to what Tanzania has done for the Albino community.
