Mount Elgon is a large extinct volcano found in the Eastern part of Uganda covering an area of 1,279 km2. Mount. Elgon National Park extends to the districts of Kapchorwa, Mbale, Bukwo, and Kween near the border with Kenya.
The Benet people are also known as Ndoboro translating to ‘’primitive people of the mountain’’ a hunter-gatherer and pastoralist community that occupy areas near Mountain Elgon. These are divided further into three sub-groups;
- The Benet in the center of the moorland.
- The Yatui in the eastern part.
- The Kwoti in the western part.
Gazetting Mount. Elgon national park in 1936 happened when Uganda was still under British colonial rule. Creation of this park placed more land of the Benet in reserve without their consent. Initially, the Benet were not excluded from their land but rather were put under strict rules of cultivation and regulation on their animal husbandry thus raising livestock malpractice. In 1951, the area was declared a forest reserve which led to increased restrictions on hunting.
In 1968, 6 years after Uganda’s independence, the status of mountain Elgon changed to a state central forest reserve, and access to Mount Elgon became increasingly restricted and the Benet people were evicted and resettled in the nearby communities, and by the time Mountain Elgon was declared a national park in 1992, Ndorobo / Benet communities had been broadly dispossessed of their land and it was fully under UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) management.
After the area was designated, Benet community petitioned the government to restore their access to the forest land and some asked for alternative land for cultivation as the loss of the forest land limited their provision to themselves. It was in 1983 when the government started soliciting requests for land-dispossessed Benet people. However, the government did not consult Benet communities and was far from transparent and the process gave birth to land grabbing that left almost half of the Benet population community landless.
Benet people were not sensitized on how much land each was eligible to get thus raising confusion in the community. The process took three months which was very limited time for parliament to find out or to fairly distribute land among Benet people, the process also required applicants to have documentation of taxes which was so hard for these people. The process was not properly studied and surveyed which led to the loss of over 1,500 hectares, this came as a way that the government instead of issuing 6,000 hectares ended up giving 7,500 hectares. These excess hectares became the major disputes between the park management and Benet community.
In response, Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) and ActionAid wanted UWA and the Attorney General to solve problems in the disputed area. However, this decree has not been implemented and the disputed area has yet to be de-gazetted by the Ugandan government. UWA has continued to advocate for eviction of the Benet people including the forced displacement of Yatui – Benet group in February 2008 after they killed of a Belgian tourist. UWA argued that the Yatui people acted as a threat to tourism industry and this led to total eviction of Yatui forcing many to seek refuge in the surrounding areas.
Over 1,000 homesteads were destroyed and burned by UWA game rangers, and in July 2008 they were temporarily resettled in Kisito village in Kween district. This was temporally resettlement supposed to run for six months however there has been no progress since then. Following the Prime minister’s and Presidential visit during the election campaigns, Benet people were allowed to cultivate and also to rear animals from the forest since this was their indigenous land. However, there has been total human rights abuse against the Benet groups including random shootings by UWA rangers, assaults, and many other sorts of human rights abuses.
In September 2018, the local leaders and whistle blowers petitioned the Ugandan parliament demanding recognition of their rights. With other indigenous groups from Eastern Uganda, the efforts from Ministry of Gender, Labor, and Social Development have led to the formation of a committee on indigenous people, however, there is still much effort needed to make sure that these rights are recognized and protected.
In August 2020, the Ugandan parliament made its first move by ordering UWA to release over 8,000 hectares to the Benet / Ndorobo people, however UWA has not fully complied. Due to this, there lies a long road to fully protecting and recognizing the Benet people, however a visit to their communities on the lower slopes of Mount. Elgon rewards one of the most authentic cultural experiences one will ever have in Uganda.
