BUNYORO: Vast Number of Households, Suspicion about Land Grabbing Frustrates Data Collectors

As other regions nearly complete the Parish Development Model (PDM) Baseline data collection exercise which kicked off weeks back, Bunyoro sub-region says they are still grappling to meet the deadline following a number of challenges including resistance from residents who suspect Data collectors to be land grabbers.

The government through the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance working with Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) deployed data collectors to collect basic information countrywide about households under the Parish Based Management Information System ahead of the implementation of the PDM programme.

The data collected will be used to generate village registers with detailed information for each household, which will be easily used by the implementers to identify the real beneficiaries who are supposed to benefit from the programme, according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

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However , a section of communities in Bunyoro sub-region which comprises the districts of ; Hoima , Buliisa , Masindi , Kiryandongo , Kakumiro , Kibaale, Kagadi and Kikuube have been more anxious over increasing cases of land grabbing in the Albertine Graben, where oil firms are exploring for oil.

Speaking to our reporter on 2^nd July 2022 Deogratius Tibenda , the Senior District Planner for Kagadi District says besides the challenges lack of gadgets to collect Data ,limited facilitation to help data collectors move to hard to reach areas among others ,the major problem is the suspicion by residents who believe that Data collectors are agents of land gabbers.

‘’PDM baseline data collectors are being frustrated by some residents’ suspicion of being seen as agents of land grabbers. Many believe that they are gathering information to eventually evict them and some have been rejecting the exercise’’, said Tibenda.

He added that some residents, like in Kagadi, have boycotted the exercise suspecting that the data collectors are spies for land grabbers.

‘’Kagadi population are majority farmers ,the time we send our teams in the field most of them are busy in the gardens farming .When they go back in the evening others deliberately refuse to comply due to suspicions’’, he added that they are however working with Ubos to sensitize communities.

Tibenda also added that the exercise is sluggish because some data collectors lack enough technological skills to use the Application system and since they are using their personal phones, some are not reliable due to weaker batteries.

Tibenda says the district is big given the number of 303 data collectors deployed to handle 460,000 households. The District has so far collected 46% data out of the 130,000 households and the registered Saccos for PDM are 63.

Kagadi has 26 sub-counties, 10 Town councils and residents engage in farming and livestock as the major economic activities.

Tibenda says each data collector is given 12000 but this is not enough as many areas especially in Ndaiga sub counties are hard to reach.

The situation is not different in Buliisa , Masindi , Kiryandongo and Kakumiro among other districts.

The Kagadi Deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Benjamin Tumusiime, says that in areas where people refuse to divulge information, village council leaders can help because some already possess registers about their residents.

In Kakumiro, some data collectors resigned due to limited facilitation which crippled the exercise.

In Hoima district, sh840 million were received to facilitate the operations of the parish development model but Charles Kajura, the district focal person for Programme, says they have a challenge of residents focusing on financial inclusion and ignoring other pillars in the program.

Some residents argue that data would have preceded the implementation because the most vulnerable might be left out.

In Hoima some people are hesitant to give information to data collectors because they think the government wants to list their properties to tax them.

The UBOS supervisor Bunyoro sub-region, Leo Bahumuka, said that despite the challenges, the exercise is moving smoothly in most places.

The government in the new financial year 2022/23 provided funds for PDM SACCOs to registered groups in the 10, 594 parishes to bolster their income-generating activities as the government embarks on the journey of transforming 3.5 million households still in subsistence to the money economy.

Guidelines issued by UBOS indicated that the Parish Chiefs, who are the major supervisors of PDM activities in their localities, were to collect the data, supported by the local staff appointed by respective local governments. Uganda has 135 district local governments and 10 cities.