Voice of the Peasant to Educate and Inform Citizens: A Commitment to Social and Climate Justice.
The environmental organization AFIEGO has officially announced its intention to appeal the controversial High Court ruling that dismissed its case against the Tilenga Oil Project, operated by TotalEnergies in Uganda. Filed in 2019 with the support of the Guild Presidents’ Forum on Governance (GPFOG), the lawsuit sought to challenge the issuance of the environmental approval certificate granted to the project by Ugandan authorities, particularly the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). AFIEGO accuses public institutions of conducting an environmental and social impact assessment process marred by serious legal and procedural irregularities that effectively denied affected communities, youth, and civil society organizations meaningful participation in public consultations. According to the organization, the public hearings held in 2018 were chaired by an official facing a potential conflict of interest, while several participants were reportedly given only one minute to present their concerns, contrary to Uganda’s environmental laws. Even more concerning, AFIEGO argues that the environmental assessment report presented to the public was incomplete because it excluded the Resettlement Action Plan, despite the fact that thousands of families living near the oil development areas face the risk of forced displacement and loss of agricultural land.
Local Communities Sacrificed in the Name of Oil: Floods, Human-Wildlife Conflicts, and Growing Social Frustrations at the Center of the Debate
Beyond the strictly legal dimensions of the case, the dispute highlights the deep social and environmental tensions surrounding the development of the Tilenga project in the districts of Buliisa and Nwoya, areas located near Murchison Falls National Park, Lake Albert, and other ecologically sensitive zones. AFIEGO argues that the years-long delay by Uganda’s judiciary in hearing and ruling on the case allowed oil operations to progress without effective judicial oversight, thereby worsening the impacts on local communities. According to Dickens Kamugisha, the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, residents are now reporting an increase in flash floods, deadly human-elephant conflicts, crop destruction, as well as rising family and economic tensions linked to oil activities. For many observers, the situation reflects a broader extractive development model in which economic and energy interests increasingly overshadow the protection of human rights, environmental sustainability, and democratic consultation mechanisms. Local communities have particularly accused institutions that were expected to protect them of prioritizing industrial interests over the concerns of citizens directly exposed to the project’s consequences.
A Landmark Legal Battle with Major Implications for Environmental Governance in East Africa
Through this appeal, AFIEGO is seeking the cancellation of the Tilenga project’s environmental approval certificate and demanding fresh public consultation processes that comply with both national legal standards and international principles of public participation. The organization sharply criticizes the High Court’s ruling, arguing that the judgment relied on legal provisions enacted after the case had already been filed in 2019, raising serious concerns about the retroactive application of the law. AFIEGO also contends that the court failed to adequately address the critical issues of the public hearing chairperson’s impartiality and the incompleteness of the environmental assessment report presented to citizens. For environmental justice advocates, this case extends far beyond the Tilenga project itself: it could become a major precedent regarding how African states regulate large-scale oil developments and whether they genuinely guarantee communities the right to participate in decisions affecting their lands, natural resources, and future. Several civil society actors already view the case as a decisive test for the independence of environmental justice in East Africa and for the ability of local communities to make their voices heard in the face of multinational oil corporations and state interests.
La Rédaction
Uganda’s Tilenga Oil Project: AFIEGO Launches Legal Counterattack and Denounces the Exclusion of Local Communities in a Highly Controversial Case Involving Environmental Violations, Oil Interests, and the Denial of Public Participation
