Investor collects losses in Apaa land conflict as his concession winds down

With three years remaining before the concession expires, in February this year, the government issued a 90-day ultimatum to settlers on the Gazetted Wildlife Reserve and Forest Reserve to vacate or face forceful eviction.

This directive was later halted by President Museveni who called for a judicial commission to inquire into the Apaa land conflicts.

This conflict has been the only attention that the area has received for over two decades now and has marred the reputation of the hunting grounds business since it started in 2012.

UWA speaks out

In 2012, disputes over Apaa land, which borders Adjumani and Amuru districts, commenced when UWA started forcefully evicting residents claiming that it is a gazetted East Madi Wildlife Reserve.

Local leaders in the Amuru district have continuously blamed the government for permitting the eviction of residents with the intention of giving it away to an investor.

UWA does not deny signing the concession agreement that allowed the sport-hunting business in the Reserve.

According to a long-serving UWA official, the Kidepo Valley Conservation Chief Warden Samuel Amanya, Lake Albert Safaris Ltd won the concession in East Madi Wildlife Reserve. He said last week that UWA and the host district signed an agreement for the business to operate sport-hunting.

East Madi Wildlife Reserve is one of the 12 areas across the country that UWA identified to initiate sport hunting after the business pilot at Lake Mburo.

However, the conflicts that sparked over Apaa land made business hard for the investor who withdrew from it.

Speaking on UWA's stance on the matter, the UWA Communications Manager Bashir Hangi says that UWA’s interest in Apaa is singularly based on carrying out its mandate of conservation and not the nature of the concession or reconciling the conflicting parties.

The investment

URN established that Bruce Martin, a South African tourism investor and proprietor of Lake Albert Safaris Ltd won a 20-year concession in 2006 to establish the sport hunting business on more than 800 Square kilometres of the gazetted East Madi Wildlife Reserve.

Nine years later, he revealed to URN that he withdrew from the business over the conflicts that sparked in the area.

He says that he had set up camps, allocated an aircraft runway and set up a patrol boat on the Nile before the conflicts undermined his investment.

Now the matter awaits the inquiry of a judicial commission.