Explain PWDs ‘land grabbing’ – Speaker Among directs

The Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among, has directed the Minister of Gender Labour and Social Development, the Hon Betty Amongi, to present a detailed report on land owned by Persons With Disabilities, now at risk of being illegally taken over by investors.  The Speaker’s directive followed complaints from Members of Parliament alleging that, land in Lweza, Wakiso district belonging to PWDs is at the risk of land grabbing with the knowledge of the Minister of Gender.

“The Minister should present a comprehensive report on all land owned by PWDs, because the complaints are not only in Lweza but other areas,” she said as she chaired the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 15 November 2023. Members were responding to a government statement on the commemoration of the International Day of Persons With Disabilities, presented by State Minister for PWD, Hellen Asamo.

The International Day of PWDs will be celebrated in Mbarara district, under the theme ‘the role of innovation in disability inclusion’ on 3 December 2023. PWDs representative, Laura Kanushu, said she had a copy of the letter purportedly written by the President, instructing the gender minister to give out four acres of land for PWDs in Lweza to an investor. She also said that she has another letter from the gender minister instructing the Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, to distribute more than four acres of land to investors.

“We would like to get clarity from government on when the PWDs started providing land to investors, because the threats of land grabbing are also reported in Mbale, Naguru and Kampala,” said Kanushu.

Hon Kanushu, PWDs National Female MP

Hon. Mpindi Bumali also a PWDs representative attested to Kanushu’s assertion, saying his counterparts are in fear over reports of land grabbing at the hands of their line ministry. “As we plan to celebrate the International PWDs day, we have concerns, we have information that the minister of gender is conniving with somebody to grab our land in Lweza,” Bumali said.

The same report was given by the Chairperson of the Committee on Gender, Labour and Social Development, Flavia Kabahenda, who said that the land in Naguru meant for children with disabilities was at risk of being lost by the rightful owners.

Kabahenda in response to the minister’s statement, called on government to revise the tax on pampers saying the current tax is deterrent to the already disadvantaged persons. “The people with spinal bifida live on pampers, there are PWDs who depend on pampers from birth to death, the elderly people also live on pampers, we need to revisit the levy on pampers,” said Kabahenda.

Minister Asamo in her statement expressed the need to explore the local production of affordable organic diapers, among other materials, to strengthen accessible care for children with this category of disability. She also expressed the urgency of a comprehensive policy for schools to put in place facilities to assist children with disabilities. “Ministry of Education and sports need to explore innovations such as online sign language tutorials for secondary schools, and signed audio-visio copies of the curriculum, to mitigate the current teaching gaps in sign language. This also supplements on the instructional materials and methods,” said Asamo.

Asamo asked the Ministry of Information, Communication, Technology and National Guidance to complete the education ministry by installing translation systems in schools.

“The Ministry responsible for innovations or ICT can support installations of real time voice-to-text translation systems in schools and other public places. These systems can accurately transcribe voice conversations using speech to text technology,” she said.

Speaker Among directed that a motion be introduced for a policy to require all schools put in place facilities to assist PWDs students in learning.

“The chairperson for the committee on gender should bring a motion instructing all schools, whether private or public to put in place facilities for persons with disabilities, or else they should not be allowed to operate,” Among said.