Police in Hoima have detained eight people on charges of encroaching on River Kafu at Katereiga 2 Village in Katereiga Parish, Buhanika Sub-county.

The encroachers were arrested on Wednesday in a swoop mounted by Hoima district local government and the Deputy Resident District Commissioner (DRDC), Mr Michael Kyakashari, after they were found having grown rice and tomatoes on the bank of the river.  

On interrogation, the encroachers told Mr Kyakashari and the police that they were casual labourers hired from Busoga region and Masaka district to work on Mr Fred Mutebi’s farm in the area.

On hearing their account, the RDC ordered them to call their boss on the phone who in turn told him that he hired the land from Mr Edward Kanjogera.

In the course, it was revealed that Mr Kanjogera holds a title for the land that the authorities said was acquired in a buffer zone of River Kafu.

Ms Harriet Birungi, the Hoima District Environment Officer, was disturbed that most of the people cultivating in wetlands use toxic chemicals for spraying their crops yet they are harmful to the water, aquatic life and the soil.