“PLOT TO ENCULF CONFLICTS TRIGGERS, FINISHED”

With support from European Union through HIVOs, Good Hope Foundation for Rural Development (GHFRD) organized and conducted sub county meetings to share ideas on conflict prevention and peaceful co-existence, from 11^th to 13^th July 2016. Sixty three (18 males and 45 females) comprising of sub county leaders and Minority community members participated in the meetings at

Katwe kabatooro Town council, Munkunyu, Lake Katwe, Karusandara and Kitswamba sub county headquarters, and CBOs offices (Munkunyu Christian mother care women group and Kitsutsu united youths)

Good Hope staff members, Karusandara Subcounty Chairperson,Subcounty Community Development Officer and District Councilor before other participants during the meeting.

The following key Issues were raised in the meetings;

·         Communities clearly pronounce conflicts in Kasese District to be between Cultivators and cattle keepers.

·         Minority and marginalized are terms negatively perceived in some communities like Karusandara. They feel if it is minority, all people there are.

·         Leaders both political and technical must be sensitized on peace and conflict prevention before engaging local people if the project must realize impact. This was raised in Munkunyu

·         Conflicts in communities need internal interventions, not external for sustainable peace building

·         Locally initiated forums should be engaged for project ownership like community elders’ forums

·         Conflicts in Kasese are majorly triggered by disagreements on land use and ownership, a case of Munkunyu, Karusandara, Kitswamba and L. Katwe sub counties.

·         To deliver the message very fast, there is need to focus much on community based activities and media.

 

A member of Munkunyu christian women group sharing his local experience about land conflicts

What to do;

·         Sensitizing and empowering all local council ones’ chairpersons, community influential people, other political and technical leaders at sub county levels and religious leaders on how to package and deliver information on peaceful co-existence. These stakeholders are too close to local community members where conflicts occur. Skilling them will create a strong foundation for conflict prevention and management in the District.

·         Community based organizations must be identified, assessed and engaged in conflicts prevention and management for grass root conflicts management

·         The identified CBOs will be facilitated to do massive mobilization of local people against conflicts promotion and human rights abuses in their localities.

This three pointer knife will not give room to conflicts to escalate any more in Kasese District. By December 2018, communities should have received enough empowerment to locally address conflicts triggers before they can result into violent conflicts.

Posing for a photo after a meeting at Munkunyu subcounty headquarters

Wait for more updates!