A section of top Judicial officials is bitter and desperate over government actions that fan environmental destruction and enhance climate change.
The officials who have just been sensitized in Kampala on climate justice by experts from the international NGO Green Watch and the Judicial Training Institute, are now describing the government as the biggest threat to the environment in Uganda by omission and commission, for failing to do enough to mitigate climate change after itself pushing for projects which destroy the environment.
The Registrar of the Criminal Division of High Court Didas Muhumuza went as far as likening the government to a woman who wants to have babies but remain a virgin after, when it pushes projects that are dangerous to the environment and does not expect to fan climate change.
Climate change results from gaseous carbon emissions which create a greenhouse effect in the atmosphere. This resultes nto global warming which has led to massive melting of ice from the poles of the earth, leading to rising ocean water levels. This threatens to ruin millions of acres of once fertile land as the ocean water is salty. The cutting of trees removes what are called carbon sinks, as it is trees that otherwise remove carbon dioxide from the air.
Muhumuza even lamented the appointment of Beatrice Anywar as a minister after spearheading the public resistance to the destruction of Mabira rainforest for which she had earned the nickname Mama Mabira. The registrar gave examples of Beatrice Anywar who was previously seen as opposition for protesting against the destruction of Mabira Forest but after she was appointed as a minister, she allegedly became quiet.
The registrar regretted that since Anywar joined the government, nobody has filled her shoes in fighting deforestation, and yet the government is continuing to give land to investors which results into environmental destruction.
High Court Land Division Judge John Eudes Keitirima claimed that even a Supreme Court decision cannot stop the government from pushing environmentally destructive projects, and that the government wouldn’t respect court injunctions in such matters.
