Will the discovery of oil help BUNYORO develop economically?

Published Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4:45 PM

The people of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom www.bunyoro-kitara.com the news of the discovery of oil near Lake Albert is VERY GOOD NEWS for them and they have high hopes that part of the oil funds may be given to the kingdom http://www.bunyoro-kitara.com/mission.htm to help develop their area that has been neglected and underdeveloped for so many years. Bunyoro kingdom made up of Buliisa New District by Lake Albert http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/568605 , Masindi(north), Hoima(central) and Kibaale (south) Districts is now having keen interest in the recently discovered oil that is on Bunyoro soil http://ugpulse.com/articles/daily/Business.asp?ID=496#bunyoro

Why so? One must look at the history of Bunyoro to understand better why the Banyoro are really excited about the oil discovery. Bunyoro has been neglected for many years without any or much development of the infrastructure since the days of the colonial times. It all goes back to the coming of the British to colonize Uganda and finding the powerful King of Bunyoro the OMUKAMA KABALEGA who ruled from about 1870-1899. He refused to be subjugated to become a colony of Her Majesty the Queen of England.""Why be under another leader? a Muzungu? a woman queen? imposible ! unheard of ! am i not a king and a ruler of my own pipo?"" And so he organized a stiff and tough resistance to the British rule and waged a guerillar warfare against the British whom he defeated and humiliated several times especially at the famous battlefield called BALIGOTA ISANSA.

But because Kabaleega put up the first ever NATIONAL RESISTANCE MOVEMENT -- NRM -- and the first ever NATIONAL RESISTANCE ARMY -- NRA -- against the British, the British then made a plan that after the capture of Kabalega 1899 and his eventual going to exile 1899-1923, it was the plan of the British to put an EMBARGO ON BUNYORO KITARA KINGDOM FOR THEIR RESISTANCE TO BRITISH COLONIAL RULE. http://www.bunyoro-kitara.com/empire.htm

And so the years that followed saw the collapse of the infrastructure of Bunyoro and the lack of development for the people up to independence time and for the next 45 years of post independence era not much was done to improve the situation of the Banyoro. Oh yes and the British made sure after the capture of Kabaleega that 65% of the best and most fertile land was gazetted as National forest and game reserves and big populations moved from these fertile areas and put on areas that were not fertile and the result was sickness and death and depetion of the Banyoro population and their cattlle-goats-sheep and thus the collapse of the economy that sustained the pipo at that time. http://ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/4833/ShowThread.aspx#4833 the years that followed up to Independence 1962 there were little or no development made in Bunyoro as a way to punish the Banyoro for their support to Kabaleegas NRA-NRM resistance to British rule.

Bunyoro is now sueing the British to pay and compensate for the damages made to Bunyoro during the colonial era: http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9774 , and http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/495.html and http://allafrica.com/stones/2000703190221.html

Its only recently may be in the last ten years that some development is being made in the kingdom by the central government. Uganda's President Museveni is aware of the situation and the history of Bunyoro and how Bunyoro has been accomodative to the arrival of different tribes in the kingdom. Its the hope of Banyoro that the central government takes seriously the issue of development in Bunyoro. http://www.statehouse.go.ug/news.detail.php?newsId=457&category=News%20Release And most of the development that has earlier been made in the Kingdom, things like Schools and rural health centers were actually made by the Church faith communities like the Protestant COU Bunyoro Kitara Diocese and Hoima Catholic Diocese http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/news.asp?ID=738 and the recently created local NGO called URDT based at Kagadi - Kibaale District. URDT has established the only University present in the whole of Bunyoro, its the first African Rural University for Women= ARU ( www.urdt.net, and http://www.urdt.net/aru.html and WATCH VIDEO OF URDT/ARU http://www.urdt.net/urdtmedia.html )

Now with the discovery of oil there is every hope that at last some 10 % that percent of the oil revenue be given back to Bunyoro to deveop the area and redress the mistakes made by the British who wanted to leave Bunyoro in poverty and in state of backwardness .Yes Bunyoro now has keen interest in Oil that has been found in its Kingdom http://ugpulse.com/articles/daily/Business.asp?ID=496#bunyoro and the banyoro are dancing and rejoicing that at last God has heard their prayers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYWPqoCpHEY Oh yes, you may not believe it, but there were prayers offered, prayers for oil http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/news.asp?ID=1900

the question still stands: that although Bunyoro is still lobbying for oil benefits,

WILL THE DISCOVERY OF OIL HELP BUNYORO DEVELOP ECONOMICALLY ?

A Pastor Okudi's Song of Hope says, this may be the time for the long awaited for annointing of the Oil found in Bunyoro. It is the moment for fighting poverty and underdevelopment and rising to greater heights of development. And as Okudi sings - its a time for the annointing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDbY3zMLVdg

or will Bunyoro end up like the people of ENUGU State in Nigeria who have the oil but they have ben left to be the poorest in Nigeria and the oil companies only spilling the oil residues onto their land , thus causing evironmental degradation and focing thr Enugu pipo to take up arms against the oil companies and the government for failure to address their problems of poverty. I hope we dont see a repeat of the same here in Bunyoro along Lake Albert.

And now there is talk of some big shots in Politics already buying pipo off the land so as to be there as the oil industry expands. Actually some of them seem to be having land titles and the pipo who have been there for years and years are wondering how some one can come from no where and say this is my land and I have the land tiltle for this area http://www.monitor.co.ug/news/news060410.php . how so?? well to begin with, the British made sure that the pipo of Bunyoro and Eastern and Northern Uganda do not get LAND TITLES and that has been the case for years--- how now do these pipo get the land titles? and from where? And now its the pipo with land titles getting Bank Loans but of course the pipo of Bunyoro, the East and the North cannot get Bank Loans since they have no land titles.... the land was given yes the MAILO land to the FRIENDS of the BRITISH for their support against the Bunyoro NRM/NRA.

Q1 - WHO ARE THE BANYORO?

http://www.uconnect.org/bunyoro/virtmuseum.html

http://www.hoima.go.ug/background/kingdom.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyoro and http://www.answers.com/topic/bunyoro

http://www.federo.com/pages/Region_of_Bunyoro.htm

http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/homepage.asp?ID=259

http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/news.asp?ID=738

Q2 - WILL THE DISCOVERY OF OIL HELP DEVELOP BUNYORO?

http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/homepage.asp?ID=496

Q2 - WILL OIL REALLY HELP UGANDA BECOME AN ECONOMIC GIANT OF EAST AFRICA?

http://www.businessinafrica.net/news/east_africa/925651.htm

by TIICA