Uganda: Parliament demands investigation into deaths and disappearances blamed on park rangers

On October 13, 2026, the Tourism, Trade and Industry Committee of the Ugandan Parliament requested that the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and the police investigate deaths and disappearances attributed to rangers from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the public agency in charge of national parks. The incidents in question concern the districts of Nwoya, Buliisa, and Kasese, and the findings are expected within six months, reports the Ugandan media outlet Nile Post.

Eleven names in a single clan

According to the report, rangers allegedly used force against people found in protected areas or suspected of entering them without authorization. Several families claim they were never able to recover the bodies of loved ones who died during incidents related to the parks.

The most specific case cited concerns the Koyo clan in Purongo, in the Nwoya district: a member of the community claims that eleven people have died or disappeared there in three years, without the bodies being recovered. The committee indicates that it has not independently verified these allegations and is not publishing a comprehensive toll.

The park agency's version

The UWA attributes the deaths occurring in the parks to clashes between rangers and armed poachers. Its spokesperson, Bashir Hangi, already stated to the Daily Monitor in August 2025 that rangers facing armed poachers have no choice but to respond with force. The same newspaper reported that for the year 2024, 2,145 people were arrested and prosecuted for illegal access to ten national parks.

Before the deputies, the Minister of State for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Susan Nakawuki, indicated that the government had installed some 5,000 kilometers of fencing and stated that more than 1,000 rangers had been killed, injured, or traumatized during encounters with poachers. The committee recommends extending electric fencing around four parks.

Conservation versus communities

No liability has been established at this stage: the parliamentary request is a call for an investigation, and the reported allegations have not been adjudicated. The issue, emphasizes the committee's vice-chair, Patrick Aeku, is that the persistence of these unresolved accusations is causing lasting damage to the relationship between conservation authorities and local populations.

This is where a very concrete African dilemma lies. Uganda derives a significant portion of its tourism revenue from its parks, and its rangers pay a real price when facing armed networks. But wildlife cannot be protected against the inhabitants, and a family that receives neither a body nor an explanation remains a family denied justice. That a parliamentary committee is referring the matter to the UHRC rather than dismissing it is, in itself, a signal.