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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025
From West Nile to Karamoja, the panorama of large scale deforestation due to charcoal burning and the commercial transportation of charcoal to Kampala is playing out unabated.
This phenomenon is unfolding under the watch of the law enforcers against the backdrop of a Presidential Order No 003 of 2021 that environmentalists and activists have been left puzzled.
In that order, President Yoweri Museveni banned the commercial production of charcoal in the entire Northern and Eastern Uganda including West Nile, Acholi, Lango, Karamoja, Sebei and Iteso.
“We have environment police by name. The duty bearers are not doing their part,” declared Samuel Hashaka Mpimbaza, the Resident district commissioner of Obongi district who tasked them to give accountability to the nation.
Mpimbaza is a suspect on police bond issued after he was accused of obstructing justice when he impounded a truck that was illegally transporting charcoal from degraded Zoka forest in Adjumani district via the Obongi ferry.
“When you stop transporters of charcoal, they connect to some big shots from above who make threatening phone calls. People are very, very connected,” he says.
The RDC explained that environment is a matter of common sense in that when your environment is covered with trees, you cannot feel the heat from the atmosphere.
However, he warned that the destruction is real and we are in danger of climate change and the situation in the villages is getting worse.
“It is too hot that at night you have to keep the windows open or sleep outside. I have spent two years in Obongi district and I have never covered myself with a bed sheet because with the heat inside you don’t need a bed sheet. At night the temperature is at 39 to 42 degrees centigrade,” observed Mpimbaza.
He called for massive planting of trees and intensified sensitization meetings between civil society organizations, government agencies and the communities where the destruction is playing out.
Mpimbaza was speaking during a regional accountability and learning event aimed at fostering collaborative action for climate justice in West Nile, held at Hotel Le Confidentiel in Arua on December 2, 2025.
The Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment in West Nile (RICE-WN) which is the lead agency implementing the Strengthening Environmental Accountability and Climate Action in West Nile and Karamoja (SEA-WNK) project convened the conference.
The other implementing partners are the Friends of Zoka, Africa Center for Energy and Mineral Policy and the Sustainable Plan and Action for Community Empowerment (SPACE).
The Sh10.7 billion project is funded by the Royal Danish embassy in partnership with the embassies of Ireland, the Kingdom of Netherlands and Sweden.
It covers the West Nile districts of Adjumani, Obongi, Madi-Okollo and Zombo and the Karamoja districts of Nakapiripirit and Amudat.
Jackson Olema, the project manager at the RICE-WN said the four-year project running from 2024 to 2027 aims at improving protection and sustainable utilization of natural resources among the communities.
They do this by supporting local governments in climate governance, planning, budgeting and monitoring of climate adaptation interventions, development of climate risk and vulnerability assessment and climate education and community engagement with special focus on youth and women.
The participating civil society organizations also assist the local governments in policy advocacy on climate change responsive governance and advancing rights of the people to safe water, pollution-free air among others.
Some achievements registered in the past year include increased community awareness and action on environmental protection leading to increased demand for tree planting and renewable energy technologies.
Obongi district introduced a sh200,000 fine for bush burning to stamp out setting of bushfires for leisure and for hunting game meat.
The program has strengthened implementation of national and district-level policies, ordinances, and regulatory frameworks for environmental protection and climate action.
Olema indicated that the local governments were becoming more responsive in addressing environmental concerns, for example, Zombo and Adjumani local governments have started arresting charcoal traders, Obongi district is enforcing directives on murram excavation etc.
There also is an increase in resource allocation for environmental protection, for instance Nyapea Sub County in Zombo and Pakelle Sub County in Adjumani are raising their own tree nurseries and Gimara Sub County in Obongi raised her budget by 6%.
In Madi Okollo, the district disseminated and implemented the charcoal ordinance while Adjumani district rolled out the livestock management ordinance.
Another area of notable improvement was the creation of more opportunities for alternative livelihoods to reduce dependence on natural resources.
Accordingly, 13 project participants from Obongi were linked to Olia Presidential Industrial Hub in Adjumani district to attain hands on skills in welding, building and concrete practice and tailoring to reduce their dependence on forests and wetlands for livelihood.
A total of 24,459 trees were planted by 318 (117 Male, 201 Female) participating households, approximately covering 5.4 hectares of land in different parcels in project districts.
Officials noted that there is still very high unmet demand for planting tree seedlings that the remaining two years could be very critical in addressing tree cover restoration.
Mpimbaza has welcomed the project to Obongi district, revealing that the situation of environmental destruction is terrible there with the refugee settlement in Palorinya. The district has 142,000 refugees and 60,000 nationals all of whom survive on firewood and charcoal for cooking.
“This means they have to cut trees every day. We need to venture into alternative energy saving sources,” he suggested.
He took notice of the non-distribution of the gas cylinders that were procured by the government but have not been given out to the households to enhance use of clean energy.
“The other time I saw the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja, launching distribution of the government of Uganda gas cylinders. Inform the Prime Minister that the gas cylinders she launched are decorating the storage facilities unutilized,” Mpimbaza pointed out.
He proposed the use of biogas since West Nile and Uganda has many domestic animals. He made reference to Karamoja region where biogas was successfully introduce when he worked in that semiarid part of Uganda.
Criminalizing charcoal
In the search for tangible results, the district security committee in Obongi district has criminalized destruction of the environment.
“We have stopped police bond for commercial charcoal dealers because we don’t want to wait for something to come from Kampala,” he stated.
As a result charcoal dealers now avoid Obongi and Gulu as they have found it easier to pass through Arua, Pakwach and Nakasongola where in Mpimbaza’s view, officers are either sleeping on their jobs or are complicit in corrupt practices that allow commercial charcoal production and transportation to thrive.
Mpimbaza’s tussle with charcoal dealers
In a moving testimony that set the stage for the days discussions, Mpimbaza reflected on his tussle with charcoal dealers last year when a truck with over 200 bags of charcoal from Zoka forest in Adjumani district was being escorted by an Adjumani district local government vehicle No: 002 and a motorcycle of the district.
He wanted to understand how even after the Executive order of the president a truck could cross the ferry with huge load of charcoal. The ferry operators told him that their work is strictly transportation to enable humans, animals, and cargo to cross the river.
“I impounded the truck. Then calls started coming from Adjumani asking who I am. I told them I was enforcing executive order. I took the truck to Obongi police station but I was charged as a suspect together with my assistant RDC by the police I supervise,” he said.
The RDC said in the case CRB: 068/2024 in which he was accused of obstruction of justice for arresting the driver of the vehicle that was illegally commandeering charcoal.
They were summoned by the CID officer to make statements. The matter went up to the court and the court issued an ordered to dispose of the charcoal by public auction.
The police instead sold the charcoal to those from whom it was impounded from.
“At 6:00 o’clock as I was leaving office, I found the vehicle leaving Obongi. I stopped and said I am the main complainant in the case of your arrest, where are you going? The driver wanted to knock me but I managed to block the truck. The driver called the OC CID who came yanking a court order that he did not want me to read,” Mpimbaza narrated.
Apparently the police officer had under declared the quantity of charcoal, having sold some before going to court. From over 200 the number of bags reduced to 125.
From there another legal gymnastics began with the matter heading to the Inspector General of Government and State House.
The district security committee sat on a Thursday and resolved to recount the charcoal bags on Friday morning but the truck disappeared from the police station at night.
The OC CID was eventually transferred to Arua where the charcoal business is thriving unchecked.
“There is a lot of joking going on about environment protection. Let’s be more serious if the fight against destruction of the environment is to succeed. We can plant more trees. NFA has trees which they are supposed to give to the people free of charge but they are not giving the information to the people,” said Mpimbaza.
He commends the Kabaka of the Buganda kingdom for making tree planting a requirement for qualifying wedding ceremonies.
He says this will increase the green coverage and save the environment from the blistering heat and he appealed to all traditional and religious leaders to adopt a similar edict to promote environmental protection in Uganda.
Ivan Aman Karuhanga, a climate justice and environmental Accountability expert, recommended that to halt biodiversity loss and degradation, climate justice should have the youth at the center because their energy can act as a catalyst if put to productive use.
Uganda has 18,783 recorded species of flora and fauna, 53.9% of the surviving world population of mountain gorillas and 600 species of fish all of which face varying levels of threat from climate change and environmental degradation.
He implored the Uganda biodiversity-trust fund to bridge the gap between local actors and international donors by sourcing for resources to finance mitigation measures.
