Oil Wealth and poverty: Africa’s last eco-frontier –The East Africa Region

Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 | By

By Rajab Bwengye-NAPE

Africa is known as the World’s richest in terms of Natural resources. These include forests, wetlands, minerals, wild animals, fertile soils, lakes and rivers plus other magnificent land forms therefore, why the continent has remained as a habitat for the World’s poor has never been an issue of depravity of natural resources.

The recent discoveries of oil in East Africa confirm the dominance of Africa, as far as endowment of natural resources is concerned. From North, through Central to South; to West and now east, the continent is richly endowed with natural resources. The East African region has been the last frontier. However, the indigenous inhabitants of the land upon which the discovery is made have expressed fear of disruption, pollution, land grabbing, corruption, human rights abuse and insecurity; these consequences have been felt all over the continent.

In North Africa, the Arab spring that started in Tunisia, Egypt, through Libya and now biting Sudan (Noth and South), Syria has exposed the danger that can accompany petrol dollars; the creation of deep seated aristocracies built out of oil wealth. All the above oil rich nations ended up in civil strife.

In Central Africa, DRC has never known peace despite rich natural resource endowment. Oil, copper, gold constitute the denominator figure in the equation.

In West Africa, political instability has been the order of the day mainly due to Oil mining by Royal Shell. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (“MEND”) is, for example, one of the largest militant groups; it claims to expose exploitation and oppression of the people by Federal Government of Nigeria and Oil corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta

In East Africa, there are all signs that poor governance of the oil resource is the biggest challenge that is befalling Uganda’s oil dollar fortunes in the Albertine rift. East Africans in Kenya and Tanzania should, therefore, be wary. Lest the trend comes calling.

Sudan, both North and South, Somalia and Eritrea are already in serious internal conflict; revolving around resource sharing and political machinations. In addition to the above , Oil extraction in the Eastern part of the continent will, in the near future, wreck important ecosystems because oil extractions are being operated in ecologically sensitive zones .

• In Kenya for example, Oil in 2007 was discovered in Sibiloi National Park the South Island and the Central Island National Parks located in the Lake Turkana Basin-North Kenya. The area was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997 due to being inhabited by diverse fauna.

• In Tanzania, there is off shore mapping of oil and gas deposits in the deeper continental shelf –The Indian Ocean Coast by The Norwegian Company Statoil Hydro which signed a PSA, in April 2007, on Block II offshore and now , the East African crude pipeline (EACOP) project will in Tanzania alone tranverse 7 regions and twenty-three (23) Districts, namely, Missenyi, Bukoba, Muleba, Biharamulo, Chato, Geita, Mbogwe, Bukombe, Kahama, Nzega, Igunga, Iramba, Mkalama, Singida, Kondoa, Chemba, Hanang, Kiteto, Kilindi, Handeni, Korogwe, Muheza, and Tanga, and cover a distance of one thousand one hundred forty-seven (1,147) kilometres. The thirty (30) metre-wide corridor running for one thousand, one hundred, forty-seven (1,147) km, plus the land-take of the four (4) pump stations, two (2) pressure reduction stations, the marine storage terminal, the twelve (12) camps and the thermal insulation facility will take up ten thousand eighty-one (10,081) acres. This will affect a total of nine thousand five hundred thirteen (9,513) people – the PAPs. . More importantly, the Tanzanian coastline that will also be partly affected is covered by Rich Mangrove forest that are breeding places of many land animal and bird species

• In Uganda/Democratic Republic of Congo, there is Oil exploration in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to some of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas.

There is also Oil extraction activities mainly Development of a CPF with capacity to process 190,000 barrels of oil and 700,000 of total liquid per day, Drilling of over 426 wells (200 water injector wells,196 oil producer wells, 2 polymer pilot wells and 28 reference wells) planned to be drilled on 31 well pads, Over 160 kilometrers of flow lines which will transport crude oil and water from the wells to the Central processing facility (CPF) in bullisa at Kasenyi village, 95 km 24 inch feeder pipelines which will transport processed crude oil from the CPF in buliisa to the Export hub and Green oil refinery plant seated on 28 Sq km land in Kabaale-Hoima District and a 1443 km long heated oil and gas pipeline traversing the East african region from Uganda (hoima) to the Indian coast port of Tanga in Tanzania .

These are messing up the biodiversity rich Albertine graben a known world heritage of Flora and Fauna displacing thousands of communities and perpetuating the following environmnental and social economic challenges;

CPF Oil affected communities –GWEDO-Land issues related to compensation plus Free Prior Informed Consent.
-CPF Oil refinery affected communities of KASENYI–Land issues related to compensation plus Free Prior Informed Consent.

Signing in Darkness –“A community Member-Ms Nyamahungye showing how she was cheated off her land in Buliisa by Oil companies after signing land acquisition documents for the Buliisa based feeder oil pipelines she did not understand”.

“The Consent form has a disclaimer “This Consent form is made in compliance with the requirements to secure the consent of the land owners under section 135 of the Petroleum Act. It shall be signed by the landlord only as evidence of such mandatory consent .It is not and must not be taken as notice of intended use, acquisition or purchase of the described land by TEBU nor does it entitle the land owner to any payment or form of compensation .Any such claim based primarily on endorsement of this consent shall be disregarded”

-Location of TOTAL Operations at the heart of Murchison Falls National Park, one of Uganda’s leading tourist destinations and home to endangered species of animals, birds, insects and reptiles. (Wells such as Gunya,
-Operating Oil wells in both Bugungu and Kabwoya Wildlife reserves such as Mputa, Nzizi, kigogole, Ngege, Nsonga, Wairindi, Ngasa and other wells.
-Total Operations Violating Cultural rights (SNS and territories) located in the Albertine rift.
-Approval of the Tilenga Oil and Gas ESIA report and issuing a certificate by NEMA without appended plans for future control or prevention of Noise, dust, Pollution, Animal human conflicts, etc

-The presiding officer for the two public hearings for the TOTAL Operated Tilenga project was Fred Kabagambe Kaliisa, the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development who now advises President Yoweri Museveni on the oil, gas and mining sector
The law clearly talks about the presiding officer not being an interested party in the project for which the public hearing has been called,” he said, “The approval has not been done in line with the concerns of the people. By NEMA of course with the backing of TOTAL.
-Feeder pipelines and other planned oil roads will be located partly in protected areas such as Kabwoya, Bugungu wildlife reserves and Murchison falls NP
-The Tilenga project Investment plans and negative impact mitigation mechanisms so far planned should first have been subjected to independent Auditors because of the biodiversity richness of the Albertine Oil rift.
-Some of the roads in Murchison Falls National Park are already being widened and this is an obstruction to animals like elephants and the increase of traffic in the park could potentially increase the number of animal kills,”, negatively impact animal migration routes, breeding spaces, habitat change, increased poaching thus accelerating not only Animal Human Conflicts but also leading to wild life depletion.
Water abstraction issues from Lake Albert. The project will require considerable amount of water during its implementation period and therefore, “before commencement of project activities, they will obtain water abstraction permits from the directorate of Water Resources.”
“In liaison with Directorate of Fisheries Resources, they will ensure that fish breeding areas within the influence of the water abstraction facilities are not negatively impacted on” reads part of the environment impact assessment report. The questions however rotate around water spills, disrupting the fish breeding cycles and life style of the fisher folk, water usage conflicts since this is a transboundary lake with DRC and the Nile basin countries, etc.
It is also estimated that 157,095,437 cubic metres of water would be used within the estimated 28 years lifespan of the project. At peak production, water injection requirement could be a staggering 400,000 barrels of water per day drawn from Lake Albert. However no study so far not even during approval of the Tilenga ESIA reveals the environmental, social ,cultural and transboundary impact of this move to the life of this water body and dependent communities both in Uganda and DRC?
The company will limit vegetation clearance to 20 metres with in the park along the pipeline routes that will require a Maximum of 30 meters. However, this already will cause habitat change, scare away animals, and with the buried pipelines, one cannot rule out future rupture without notice.

All the above injustices justify why dirty energy fossils promotion in East Africa, in Africa and any where in the world should be fought at all cost.

The writer is the Sustainability School & Community Green Radio Program Manager -NAPE