":President Museveni orders eviction of Mubende gold miners; sends the miners in panick"

About 50,000 artisanal miners and leaders in Mubende district are in fear and panic following President Museveni’s order directing them to vacate areas which Government licensed to investors. “We are in shock that the President can approve the eviction without him coming down to hear our side of the story” says Mr Ivan Kauma Male, a project coordinator of the Singo Artisanal and Small scale miners Association (SASMA). Mr Male...says it is unfair for government to evict thousands of artisanal miners who are gainfully employed and who are contributing to national development. “This demonstrates that government has no will to support people who are struggling to earn a living in such an industry” says Male, who claims to have invested over Shs370 million in the mines in the past three years.

The artisanal miners have asked Government to at least give them a grace period of up to one year before evicting them. In a letter dated June 28^th 2017 addressed to Members of Parliament from Mubende district, President Museveni directed that those who invaded where the investor had made excavations must straight away get out. “The investor is there to help us to know whether there is gold and, if so, how much of it. Why should anybody interfere with this?” President Museveni wrote to law makers from the gold-rich district...

The Mubende district Woman Member of parliament Benny Bugembe Namugwanya confirmed that area MPs authored a petition to the President on June 16^th 2017. The petition requested the President to give artisanal miners more time before being evicted. The leaders also want government to grant location licenses to the artisanal miners who reportedly applied for them early last year in the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines.