Makusa Island is a very small (1 acre, 0.4 ha) island in Lake Victoria, very close to Entebbe, the equator and on the flight path to Entebbe airport.

Visiting Makusa Island is a unique experience, as over 400 people are crowded onto a tiny rock. Everyone lives in a wooden shack, with tiny alleys between the shacks. All the men work as fishermen. They are here because the fishing is so good.[1]

Incident

A fishing community at Mayanzi, a landing site adjacent to Kigungu have protested an eviction notice issued to them orally by two Uganda Peoples Defense Air Force officers. The two officers, Isaac Ongwen and Herbert Mwesigye, claim ownership of the land in question.

The contested land is located along the shoreline of Lake Victoria in Entebbe municipality. This is where fishermen had found refuge after initially being evicted from Makusa and Lwamunyu landing sites, located on an outlying island of Entebbe municipality. It is now home to 3,500 people.[2]

Over 700 residents who settled at Mayanzi village, Kigungu sub-ward, Entebbe municipality in Wakiso district after being evicted from islands of Makusa and Lwamunnyo in May this year, are facing further displacement after the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) gave the residents a forty-days ultimatum to vacate their new settlement.

The UPDF’s FPU, led by Lt. Col. James Nuwagaba, stormed the newly established settlement and ordered residents to vacate the area. According to Nuwagaba, the newly settled residents had started engaging in illegal fishing and that the newly established landing site is not gazetted and, therefore, illegal.

“I divided those people among three groups to be integrated to the already gazetted landing sites of Kakyanga, Lwazi and Kavenyanja, and if they insist on staying at Mayanzi, they risk losing everything,” warned the army officer.[3]

In a meeting held at Kigungu Church of Uganda, the two UPDF officers led by Herbert Mwesigye said they were offered a lease title to work on the same land where fishermen operated. However, the fishermen, led by Elly Wasajja, indicated that they wouldn’t vacate the shoreline of Lake Victoria, which acts as a buffer zone and a landing site, but not land that can be leased out by the Uganda Land Commission and the Wakiso District Land Board. Wasajja also indicated that they are legally using the area as a landing site.

[1] “Entebbe: Makusa Island, Trip Advisor, at: www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g298044-c217370/Entebbe:Uganda:Makusa.Island.html.

[2] Lubulwa Henry, “Fishing Community Protests Eviction from Entebbe,” (28 June 2018), at:

https://ugandaradionetwork.net/story/entebbe-residents-protest-forceful-eviction.

[3] “Resettled Island residents face further eviction,” Excavator UG (3 October 2018), at: https://excavatorug.com/resettled-island-residents-face-further-eviction.

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