Encroachers threaten Kumi heritage site

A section of the Nyero Rock Paintings site which encroachers have turned into a stone quarry

People are cultivating crops and quarrying on land belonging to Nyero Rock Paintings, threatening the existence of the site

Despite several interventions geared towards conserving Nyero rock paintings in Kumi District from destruction, people living in the neighbourhood have continued to carry out activities harmful to the site.

The heritage site, 8 kilometres west of Kumi Town on Ngora Road, is said to have been home to the early Iron Age inhabitants of Teso sub-region.

However, the archeological relics bearing imprints of the ancient people’s settlement in Teso are gradually vanishing due to uncontrolled human activities that authorities seem to have failed to check.

“The place is recognised internationally as a heritage site. There are rock paintings on the three caves and some of the drawings represent canoes, the sun and animals but all this is getting destroyed,” the site guard, Mr William Opio, said.

He said people living near the heritage site, most of whom settled in the area during the insurgency of 1987-1990 for safety from an army unit established near the caves, have been cultivating crops around the rocks, a practice that is exhausting the vegetation at the foot of the caves.

Authorities in Kumi said at least 20 families that have encroached on the land belonging to the heritage site have resisted calls to vacate the site.

Three years ago, Kumi District council passed a resolution banning stone quarrying and cultivation at the surrounding of Nyero RockPaintings but this has not stopped the activities.

“There is nowhere we can go. Maybe they (the authorities) should look into ways of helping us get land elsewhere,” Mr James Okiria, a resident on land claimed by the heritage management, said.

The stone quarries have gone further into the five-century treasure that the British government two years ago offered to secure funds for its protection.

“Government had abandoned the place for sometime and some people thought land surrounding the site had no owner. Permanent houses have even been built at the site,” the Kumi district boss, Mr Ismail Orot, said, adding that the US government in 2010 gave support of $37,300 to the department of museums and monuments for preservation of the cultural heritage at Nyero RockPaintings.

He said part of the funds have been earmarked to fence the rock shelters and conduct a dialogue with the neighbouring communities on the importance of preserving the heritage site.