Uganda sued over Lake Victoria flooding

Five Kenyans have sued the Ugandan Government for allegedly failing to control flooding around the shores of Lake Victoria which resulted in the displacement of about 50 000 residents. Former president of the Law Society of Kenya, Isaac Okero, and four others are accusing Kampala of breaching the East African Community Treaty and the Nile Basin Comprehensive Framework Agreement on how much water should be released. They are backed by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission and the Kenyan and Tanzanian Governments are named as interested parties. ‘We plead for the prayers and orders that Uganda is responsible for the compensation of loss and/or damage suffered by the applicants,’ Okero stated. The East African reports that the applicants accuse Eskom Uganda Ltd of increasing or reducing the volumes of water flowing from the lake ‘based on how much is needed to meet Uganda's electricity demand’. Furthermore, they claim the Owen Falls dam was built in 1954 after Uganda and Egypt signed agreements that Uganda would not interfere with the flow of the world's longest river.

Full report in The East African