Okong’o Oduya
Over 600 Ugandans living in Kenya’s No Mans Land have been given notice to evacuate by authories.
Kennedy Otiti, The outgoing Busia Uganda Regional District Commissioner , urged the Ugandan nationals residing from Kenya’s no man’s land to evacuate from the piece of land willingly.
Mr.Otiti who has been moved to Kweng in Northern Uganda told the oversight committee on East African Community affairs that toured the border town of Busia where the Ugandans residing the place had defied the evacuation order to illegally occupy the 35m security and 35m no man’s land in Uganda and Kenya’s.It is said that the no man’s land is used for illegal activities like smuggling people and other goods in Kenya.
Otiti disagreed with Busia Uganda Municipality Member of Parliament Geoffrey Macho who claimed that Uganda Government wanted to evict 600 families from the no-man’s land without compensating them in what he termed as political propaganda to benefit himself.
“It is unfortunate that Ugandans have created markets in Kenya’s no-man’s land where they have put structures. They use the same for human trafficking and illegal cross border trade.
Kenyans moved out of the security buffer zone and no man’s land after the affected families were paid. Ugandans were paid too but politicians are still inciting them to continue occupying the two zones for their own benefit,” he said.
Addressing the public during the tour of the One Stop Border Post(OSBP) in Uganda, the MPs were told by Ugandan and Kenyan Immigration officers at the OSBP that human traffickers are forging entry stamps to secure passage of illegal immigrants along the porous borders.
The MPs fell short of disbanding the Uganda Bureau of Standards for allowing counterfeit goods into the country. In defense, the officers noted that goods that access entry into Uganda were through porous borders which are occupied by Ugandan citizens.
