Legal Affairs
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Court Returns Leased Land to Sierra Leone Community
- By solomon2day
- On 20/11/2018
- In Special Report
A community in Sierra Leone is hopeful that a court ruling which ordered an international palm oil company to return a big block of land to its owners would be a source of empowerment for them to retake control of their land and resources.
In the course of the case the court discovered that the land in Port Loko district, northern Sierra Leone, was leased to a Singapore-based palm oil company, Siva Group, in 2011, but for three years it failed to fulfill its rent obligations to landowners.
In its judgment the court ordered the return of the 41,500 hectares (103,000 acres)to the community and a imposed $250,000 fine.
Lawyers for the case disclosed that this was the first time in the history of Sierra Leone that a community would win back land leased to a foreign company.
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Ugandan Lawmakers Propose Probe of Girls in Slave Camps in Dubai
- By solomon2day
- On 17/05/2018
- In News
Members of the Ugandan Parliament have proposed the setting up of a special committee to look into the allegations of slave labour involving several girls from the country, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates(UAE).
According to the member representing Butambala in the Parliament, Mr Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi a visit Dubai by the lawmakers of Budget Committee, exposed a labour recruitment centre, "which for all intent and purpose resembles a well-organised slave market".
Kiyumbi disclosed that when the committee visited Jaira state, it discovered girls from various countries, accommodated in several small buildings, patiently waiting to be sold to buyers with the ''highest bid''.
He also stated that the girls were being maltreated, while lamenting that 16 of them had committed suicide between February and August 2017.
