The Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party has condemned the ongoing demolitions and evictions by the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), describing the manner in which railway reserves are being reclaimed as cruel and an affront to the nation’s conscience.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference on Wednesday, October 21st, 2026, at Uganda House, Party Spokesperson Sharon Arach Oyat said UPC supports the revival of the railway but opposes the way affected families are being treated.
She noted that Cabinet, at its 10th meeting on September 28th, 2026, directed URC to reclaim all railway reserves, prompting the corporation to announce a nationwide operation effective October 12th, 2026. However, Oyat said the scenes witnessed in Kyengera on October 19th, were unacceptable.
“Houses were brought down by tractors while mothers and children watched helplessly, pleading for more time to save their belongings. This is not enforcement. This is cruelty,” Oyat said.
Oyat argued that the government was punishing citizens for the negligence of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry of Works and Transport, which had failed to gazette and protect the reserves for more than two decades.
During that period, the state allowed people to settle, build homes, conduct business and even obtain titles from government land offices on the same land.
“If the government issued those titles, the government must take responsibility,” she noted.
Many of those affected are poor, low-income earners who invested their life savings in the properties and now face homelessness without alternative land, shelter or a compensation plan.
Oyat also called for an immediate suspension of the harsh demolitions and a return to a humane and lawful approach.
She said this should include a clear verification of boundaries and land titles with the Ministry of Lands, adequate notice in accordance with the law, and a publicly available resettlement and compensation framework for those who settled in good faith.
“A serious government does not demolish first and plan later. It plans first, Let us build the railway, but let us not break the people,” Oyat said.
