KAKIRA — A group of residents, who were avenging the shooting dead of their colleague, on Wednesday, February 12, 2020, torched 600 acres of a sugarcane plantation belonging to Kakira Sugar factory.
Batista Atayo is said to have been shot dead by a security guard on allegations that he had stolen scrap from one of the plantations.
But when residents stormed Kakira police division, demanding for the arrest of the guard, police did not act fast. The residents are then said to have turned their anger on the sugarcane plantation, burning it up.
By the time police arrived in Sakwa Village, Kakira town council, 600 acres of the plantation had been destroyed. Jinja Resident District commissioner Eric Sakwa said that security agencies are investigating the matter.
Mayur Madhivani, the managing director of Kakira sugar limited, said that the factory has suspended purchase of the out-growers cane so as to enable absorption of the burnt cane.
The Kakira town council LCIII chairperson, Sande Kabule, condemned the torching of the plantation as well as police’s delayed response to the residents’ concerns. Charles Wamono, a resident, says that security organs are reluctant to enforce law and order whenever they receive complaints from residents.