Despite increased opposition from a number of groups, Uganda maintains that its oil dream is still alive. This week, one of those groups filed a complaint against insurer Marsh in the US for brokering underwriting services for the $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop).
Approximately ten environmental and human rights organizations from Tanzania and Uganda accused Marsh of breaking rules for ethical corporate conduct on February 7 because of the company’s participation in Eacop. The US National Contact Point at the Department of State received the complaint.
Marsh’s complaint is coming one week after Eacop finished buying the 47.22 acres of property in Kakumiro District for the main camp and pipe yard location.
Martin Tiffen, the managing director of Eacop, indicated that the project’s backers were prepared to wrap up the land acquisition procedures by the middle of 2023, clearing the way for the construction of the 1,443 km pipeline that runs from Hoima in western Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania along the Indian Ocean.
According to Tiffen, 81% of Uganda’s project-affected residents have signed compensation agreements, while 69% have received payment. However, the project’s detractors claim that Eacop has displaced about 100,000 people without providing them with compensation.
“An insurance broker’s role is often invisible to the public, which allows them to avoid accountability, but Marsh deserves to be scrutinized,” said Coleen Scott, legal and policy associate at the Inclusive Development International (IDI).
Police stopped a public discussion on the effects of Eacop and arrested its organizer Bob Barigye on January 24, as Uganda began its first drilling rig for the Chinese-operated Kingfisher oilfield.
Last year, Uganda was faced with a similar conundrum with the European Union. The EU accused the Ugandan government, French oil group, Total Energies, and Tanzanian government of human rights violation, following both countries’ oil exploration project on Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania.
The European Union warned that 100,000 residents could be displaced if the project is commissioned, however, the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni insisted on going on with the project, stating that TotalEnergies had convinced him on the pipeline idea.
