The Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP), Mathias Mpuuga has asked Parliament to investigate the alleged fraud in the valuation and compensation of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Project Affected Persons (PAPs) in Kyotera district.

Mpuuga in company of opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) on Sunday, October 22, 2023, met hundreds of compensation claimants at Bigada in Kyotera district.

This follows the claimants filing a petition to LOP last week, and accused EACOP of undervaluing their land and crops.

During the meeting, some of the petitioners said that, they had been coerced to sign the agreements, giving away their land at a very low cost. In response, Mpuuga promised to bring their issue before Parliament for discussion and resolution.

“We are going to raise an official petition on the floor of Parliament such that Parliament can send the Committee for Natural Resources, to come and process the petition of these locals and have a hearing, so that they can receive justice. Otherwise, the pipeline is going to leave people more impoverish than they were,” Mpuuga said.

“They lost land, they can no longer grow food to the magnitude of their original acreage, and the money they gave them cannot buy the equivalent of the land lost,” Mpuuga added.

He noted that, their petition is legitimate and needs a hearing because before a compensation is made, a real land valuer in the locality must be contacted in order to know the actual cost of land, something that was not put into consideration.

One of the locals who preferred anonymity revealed that, they are disappointed in their chairpersons, who they blame for betraying them by undervaluing their land.

He added that, some of them are at the border, and the value of an acre of land is estimated at around UGX 15million, yet he who is at the main road in Mutukula town was offered UGX 3million.

The EACOP also known as the Uganda-Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (UTCOP) is a 1,443 km crude oil pipeline in planning since 2013, with a foundation stone technically under construction since 2017, and intended to transport crude oil from Uganda’s Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania on the Indian Ocean. It will have a peak capacity of 246,000 bbls/day.

EACOP in Uganda will traverse 10 districts of Hoima, Kikuube, Kakumiro, Kyankwanzi, Gomba, Mubende, Lwengo, Sembabule, Kyotera and Rakai.

Once completed, the pipeline will be the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world. However, because of the large scale displacement of communities and wildlife, water resources, and contribution to anthropogenic climate change, global environmental groups and the EU have been protesting its construction and financing.