Njeru Stock Farm dispute turns on gold exploration

The long-running dispute over Njeru Stock Farm has now got a mineral dimension. In a statement posted on X, Water and Environment Minister Major-General Kahinda Otafiire said the disputed land had been under exploration for gold and other minerals before the project was halted, and accused State Minister for Animal Industry Bright Rwamirama and unnamed officials of frustrating what he described as a legitimate venture.

Otafiire rejected suggestions that he owned or operated a gold mining project on the land, noting that mineral ownership belongs to the state under Ugandan law. UMT has not seen the licence documentation on either side of the argument.

01The legal position, stated plainly

Minerals in Uganda belong to the government. Surface rights and mineral rights are separate: holding or occupying land gives no right to extract, and an exploration licence gives no right to displace lawful occupiers without compensation. Both points are settled in the Mining and Minerals Act 2022, and both are often told wrongly in public argument about cases like this one.

02Why public land makes it harder

Truth be told, Njeru Stock Farm is public land with a disputed occupation history, which means at least three regimes overlap: land administration, the work of the institution that holds the farm, and mineral licensing through DGSM. Where those three are not reconciled early, an exploration approval can be perfectly valid on the cadastre and still be politically unworkable on the ground.

03The case for scepticism on both sides

This is not a dispute in which one party can be assumed to be acting in the public interest. A halted venture may have been stopped because it was improper, or because someone else wanted the ground. Public accusation by press statement is a poor substitute for either a cadastre record or a court file, and readers should treat the competing versions as claims until documents appear.

04What would settle it

Now, one document: the cadastre entry for the area, showing whether any exploration licence exists, in whose name, with what status and over what polygon. UMT has requested that extract from the directorate. If a licence exists, the argument becomes one about process. If it does not, the argument becomes a different one entirely. On the ground, that is what matters most.