As Uganda oil production nears, project affected persons (PAPs) interviewed for this story describe arbitrary and coercive methods aimed at anyone who asks uncomfortable questions about oil operations. Speaking out has become so toxic that PAPs such as Karungi and Adriko chose to accept compensation below the value of their property rather than antagonize the government.
On March 17, Kampala’s Buganda Road Court again remanded eight environmental activists on common nuisance charges. The charges are linked to a protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), at the heart of Uganda’s oil production plans.
The eight activists belong to Rooted in Resistance, formerly known as Students Against EACOP. By their next scheduled court appearance on April 10, they will have spent more than eight months and nine days in jail. Prosecutors charged them under a minor, colonial-era law for being a common nuisance. As a result, by that date they will have served more than two-thirds of the maximum sentence in pre-trial detention.
Long pre-trial detention and the arrest of people exercising their constitutional right to associate and protest are a feature, not a bug, of Uganda’s oil story. Across the board, citizens report harassment, intimidation, and punishment for daring to ask questions about oil exploration and production in the Albertine region.
“I have been harassed, intimidated and sometimes I had to flee my home for safety. I only came back after I felt it was fine to resurface.” — Maxwell Atuhura, resident of Buliisa District
Uganda oil production and the cost to communities
This two-month investigation draws on court documents, petitions from PAPs, field visits, and interviews with communities in the Albertine region. It shows how the pursuit of good public relations for Uganda oil production has traumatized communities, particularly around EACOP and other oil infrastructure projects.
Among other things, the repression and fear allow oil companies, their subcontractors, and government contractors to take property without compensation. Companies such as Daqing Oilfield Construction Company Limited (DOCCL) are exploiting this secrecy to cheat PAPs, pollute the environment, and harm the public good.
Daqing’s feeder pipeline leaves damage behind
DOCCL is a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation. CNOOC Uganda Limited subcontracted it under the EPC-4 contract to build a 47.6-kilometer feeder pipeline from Kingfisher in Kikuube District to the Kabaale industrial hub in Hoima.
Since DOCCL began work in 2024, residents have petitioned authorities. They allege ongoing environmental damage, destruction of wetlands and water sources, and failure to follow environmental guidelines. The company had previously said that environmental protection was central to its operations and pledged to replace cleared trees.
However, during a visit in February 2026, residents said these restoration promises had not been fully kept, even though DOCCL appears to have finished its work. The pipeline is complete, and the high-voltage line lies buried underground with marker stones visible. Still, residents feel cheated.
The community reports that construction materials were taken from people’s land without proper compensation, while unwanted debris was dumped in their gardens. Debris was also dropped beside the Hohwa stream. This creates a risk of pollution and makes life harder for pedestrians and residents fetching water. In addition, residents lost crops and land when excavators strayed beyond the work area.
Undervalued land behind Uganda oil production
Yet these are not the worst wrongs against residents in this part of the country, where Uganda oil production is set to begin in July 2026. There have also been cases of land grabbing and undervaluation of people’s property.
Sosten Leti Adriko is one of the PAPs whose land was undervalued. He says compensation for his 24.8-decimal plot and property, taken for the feeder pipeline, was unfair. The project offered him Shs800,000, yet at the time of compensation in 2018, the land alone should have been worth Shs2 million. Today, the land alone is worth about Shs4 million.
Rose Karungi Abooki, a resident of Kaseeta-Nyanseke village, tells a similar story. For her five acres, house, and crops, she had expected Shs50 million.
“I had a house and crops on my land but was given a measly Shs12 million in an oil producing area. They made me sign in the presence of their lawyer by force, as the alternative was losing out.” — Rose Karungi Abooki, Kaseeta-Nyanseke village
Because of the relocation, Karungi says her quality of life has fallen. She left a big, spacious house for one that is too small for her household of close to 20 people.
Both Karungi and Adriko say they took the money, despite the low amounts, out of fear. They did not want to end up like other Albertine residents who were left with nothing after their property was taken for oil.
Left with nothing after rejecting compensation
Jealousy Mugisha, a resident of Kasinyi village in Buliisa District, is one such PAP. He has nothing because he rejected the compensation offered. Planners earmarked his land for a feeder pipeline connecting to the Tilenga oil wells run by TotalEnergies EP Uganda Limited.
He rejected Shs12.4 million for his house and two acres of land, arguing that a similar acre in his area cost Shs20 million. As an alternative, he asked to be relocated, with TotalEnergies EP buying him land and building him a house. Officials rejected that request too. Instead, the government deposited the Shs12.4 million in court pending resolution of the case.
“We asked for land but the government instead took the money to court. We went to the Court of Appeal in 2023 as a family. To date, there is no answer, and the case has never been fixed for hearing. The case should be fixed for judgment so that if we are not contented with the outcome, we go to a higher court.” — Jealousy Mugisha, Kasinyi village, Buliisa
In September 2024, floods submerged his house. Mugisha reported the matter to the government and oil companies, but there was no compensation or offer to relocate him. The house and surrounding land flooded after TotalEnergies EP released water from Tilenga, on the shores of Lake Albert, while building an access road to the Ngiri 2 oil pad.
“We now live in poverty,” says Mugisha. He adds that persecution by security forces makes life even harder. He reports receiving threatening calls and hiding with his family for two months in February last year.
For this story, the publication emailed the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) and EACOP Limited for a response to all the allegations, but received none. Further efforts to reach TotalEnergies and CNOOC were also unsuccessful.
Uganda oil production officials warn residents against civil society
The disdain for people and organizations raising concerns in the Albertine is best illustrated by Ernest Rubondo, one of the most senior officials in Uganda’s oil sector. On August 23, 2025, he presided over a ceremony in which CNOOC handed over donated medical equipment to Kyangwali Health Centre IV in Kikuube District. There, Rubondo, the PAU Executive Director, warned residents against listening to civil society organizations.
Rubondo cited better roads and health facilities as reasons for residents to stop complaining about harm from oil companies. Some residents appear to have heeded the call. Innocent Mwebaze, a field coordinator with the Oil Refinery Residents Association, says he knows of at least 300 people across the Albertine whose land was taken without compensation.
Government workers increasingly target any dissent against oil activities in the Albertine. For fear of the consequences, Mwebaze says, many PAPs have chosen to stay silent.
Protests, apologies, and arrests
Karungi and Adriko signed agreements they disputed while seeking other ways to obtain fair compensation. They also joined public demonstrations, hoping for a review of the agreements they signed under duress. Yet the protests achieved nothing, as the army and police quickly dispersed them.
The PAPs also took their grievances to government offices in the Albertine region. To their surprise, officials such as the then Kikuube Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Amlan Tumusiime, summoned them and asked them to apologize for sabotaging government projects. Police then arrested Adriko for criminal incitement and staging an illegal demonstration.
Since then, his life has become a nightmare. “I am traumatized and sometimes I regret that oil was discovered here,” says Adriko, who has since fled for fear of persecution. He now rents a single room with his wife and children in a place he would not disclose for fear of retribution.
Other residents in Buliisa District raised similar complaints, including inadequate compensation, flooding linked to construction, and intimidation after petitioning authorities.
Persecution of those who organize
Mugisha started a grassroots organization to advocate for himself and other PAPs. He says he has faced constant persecution since 2018, when he first voiced dissent. The government, which refused to register his organization, once abducted him and released him only after pressure from national and international organizations.
In December 2019, security agents picked him up at Entebbe International Airport on his return from France. He had gone there to attend a hearing in a human rights case against the French firm TotalEnergies. His release followed interventions by several organizations, including the United Nations, the French Embassy, Friends of the Earth, and the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO). Before releasing him, his captors warned that “continued sabotage of the oil project” could cost him his life.
Mugisha founded Community Voices and Plan Organisation (COVAPO), which he has tried several times, without success, to register.
“They (Buliisa community department) refused to give a certificate on the pretext I want to bring money from Whites to sabotage oil, with no valid basis. Those who applied for formalization after me have been registered. I fear to walk and socialize freely as we used to before the onset of oil exploration.” — Jealousy Mugisha, founder of COVAPO
For safety reasons, Mugisha rarely talks on the phone. Even for this interview, he insisted on meeting in person for fear of entrapment. Harassment of people like Mugisha has had a chilling effect on the community. Some people would now rather lose their land than put targets on their backs.
Maxwell Atuhura, a Buliisa resident and activist, says oil firms are using the government to crack down on dissent and to force acquiescence and conformity on the population. He advocates for the rights of PAPs and describes persecution as a human rights defender, including several robberies at his house.
When attackers ransack civil society offices in Uganda, they often target computers and phones. The same was true at Atuhura’s house. Atuhura, who ran for Parliament but lost in the 2026 general election, says police ignored him as a “government saboteur” when he reported the crimes.
Orphaned land as Uganda oil production nears
Another example of government persecution providing cover for oil companies is what is now called “orphaned land.” Janepher Baitwamasa, an administrator at Navigators of Development Association (NAVODA), says her organization studied patches of land between EACOP and the multipurpose pipeline running to and from the oil delivery points.
So far, the oil firms have refused to compensate owners for this orphaned land. Yet the oil infrastructure makes meaningful use of these parcels difficult. In 2021, TotalEnergies announced plans to evaluate the impact of residual land loss on PAPs, but the findings were never made public.
According to Baitwamasa, PAPs have increasingly asked for this land to be included in compensation. She cites the case of Kijumba in Kigaaga Parish, Buseruka Sub-county, Hoima District. However, the government and oil firms have not acted. She adds that violations of labor, safety, socio-economic, and environmental rights have increased, while reforms have stalled.
“The sector is moving into actual production stage despite the authorities keeping a blind eye and no sign that the state would reform its position on rights.” — Janepher Baitwamasa, NAVODA
Baitwamasa notes that EACOP is now 98 percent complete. In her view, the government and oil firms are ignoring emerging problems in the Albertine faster than before, because they harass PAPs and human rights defenders. She cites the targeting of AFIEGO as having a chilling effect on communities’ ability to fight back.
A family falling apart
With civil society organizations increasingly silent, no one amplifies cases like that of David Muhanuzi, 45, a resident of Kyakapeya Cell in Hoima City. In May 2023, a truck allegedly delivering drilling equipment hit him at Boma playgrounds, leaving him severely injured.
Uganda Revenue Authority records show that the truck and carrier, registration numbers UBM 379P and UBM 127E, belong to WSL Engineering Services Limited. Muhanuzi suffered multiple fractures in his left leg. Doctors say the leg must be amputated, but he cannot afford the cost.
No one has compensated Muhanuzi, so he must find all the money for his treatment himself. To pay some of the medical bills, he sold his land. Lost property and income are now costing him his family. His wife has left, and his children have dropped out of school. He joins the long list of PAPs in the Albertine whose families are falling apart.
This article was originally published by Daily Daybreak with support from the Environmental Defenders Journalism Grant 2025.