As communities and small businesses are cleared from environmentally precious zones, big companies expand unabated. Last week, state officials accompanied by security forces swept through the Lubigi wetlands on the outskirts of Kampala in a long-awaited operation. They made numerous arrests, evicted hundreds of people, cut down eucalyptus trees, and destroyed markets, lorry parks, and many other structures. The action followed repeated presidential directives to remove people from the country’s wetlands. As businesses, farms and homes have increasingly encroached on these environmentally precious zones, they have gone from covering 15.5% of Uganda’s land in 1994 to 8.4% in 2019. If … Continue reading “The rich are untouchable”: Uganda’s struggles to protect its wetlands