Landgrabs at  gunpoint escalate in Uganda as the operations of a defender of affected communities are suspended

On Friday, 20th August, Uganda's Non-Governmental Organization Bureau suspended 54 organizations for alleged 'non-compliance'. However for multinationals it was time to merry-make as their ‘nemesis’, Witness-Radio, has been cornered.   

Witness Radio - Uganda is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates the provision of legal representation and support to poor and vulnerable victims of land grabs financed by development financing.   

IPNEWS – Monrovia: Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and Milieudefensie, a Dutch NGO, have accused the oil palm company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) of not living up the full commitment of the memorandum of understanding it signed with communities in within its concession areas. At a press conference on Thursday, August 12, both organizations called upon the Government of Liberia to ensure agribusiness in Liberia halts deforestation and rights violations.

In August 2021, a newsletter covering various land governance programmes of GIZ was launched. This newsletter is available for everybody who is interested and informs about current development within GIZ land governance and beyond. The three main programmes responsible for the newsletter are: 

The Global Programme Responsible Land Policy,

Centro Terra Viva, Terra Firma Lda and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) are excited to announce their partnership for a LAND-at-scale project in Mozambique. Starting this year, the project will run for three years focusing on three components, namely scaling community legal literacy, land rights certification and increasing climate resilience.

The San can be considered as one of the earliest inhabitants of Southern Africa. Much like in the rest of Southern Africa, the San of Botswana have consistently been marginalized, negated, and relegated to the margins of society.

Land grabs facilitated by multinational corporations, foreign investors and local governments in a pursuit for agribusiness have been escalating during the last decade. Huge acquisitions of farmland have led to violent displacements of rural populations. Although reports of the practice are not as recurrent in the media, the problem is far from over.

Kiryandongo – Uganda – As natives continue to resist illegal evictions, multinational companies opt to hire livestock as a new tactic to forcefully evict smallholder farmers from their land.

The majority of Kenyans are perturbed by the high cost of seeking justice in the Environment and Land court, a new survey shows.

The study by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI) shows that nearly nine in ten Kenyans (86 percent) see the cost as high, effectively making it difficult for them to secure justice.

Lengthy litigation at Kenya’s courts increases legal and court fees paid by litigants to courts or layers.

“However, 14 percent of the respondents felt the cost of seeking justice was affordable,” the LDGI report says.

The Agriculture Development Corporation (ADC) is involved in a scuffle with residents of Kaskini, Kilifi County.

A report by the Nation on Monday, June 14 stated that the government parastatal is claiming ownership of 900 Acres which the residents state to have been given to them by the government in 2006.

The dispute began in 2014, when ADC laid claim to the land which had been occupied by locals for decades. 

A three-judge bench has begun hearing a petition in which the Ogiek community has sued the government for evicting them from Mt Elgon Forest.

The Ogiek community living in Chepkitale in Mt Elgon Forest says the government erred in evicting them from the land and gazetting it as a national game reserve.

Community members say they have occupied the land since 1932 after colonialists chased them away from their farms in Trans Nzoia.

Their case is being heard by judges Boaz Olao, Stephen Kibunja and Nelly Matheka.