Commission.25 In August 2020, a Private Members Bill for Constitutional Amendment was tabled in Parliament seeking the recognition of the Maragoli as one of the indigenous tribes in Uganda. The Bill sought for the amendment of the Third Schedule of the Constitution to include the Maragoli as one of Uganda’s indigenous tribes.26 23. The Benet are not listed among the recognised indigenous groups in the Third Schedule to the 1995 constitution, and neither in the 2005 Amendment. The Benet people are an indigenous community hailing from Mt. Elgon in Eastern Uganda with an estimated population of over 8,500 people. In 1993, the government gazetted the land of the Benet people into Mt. Elgon Crown Forest back without consultation or the consent of the community.27 The government’s failure to resettle the Benet who were evicted from their ancestral land by Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) decades ago has resulted into a series of events including violent clashes with government authorities which has led to the loss of lives of several Benet People living on the disputed parts of the Mt. Elgon.28 24. The Bakingwe are not listed in the Constitution, yet they have been living in Kasese along the shores of Lake George and Lake Edward for centuries and traded in salt from lake Katwe and are neither a clan of any of the other indigenous communities that live in Kasese.29 25. The Bagabo also are from Kasese District and were not included in the 2005 National schedule of ethnic groups. They have petitioned Parliament alongside the Bakingwe and have also complained on their livelihoods based on fishing as being threatened by the exclusions they face. 30 26. Children of Ugandan Asian “returnees”: The 1972 mass deprivation of Ugandan nationality of Ugandan Asians by the Amin regime (1971-1979) was a critical landmark in the discourse regarding citizenship rights in Uganda. 31 The nationality deprivation was targeted at expelling citizens and residents of South Asian descent for socio-economic reasons, i.e. the Obote government focused on privileging Ugandan workers over other workers. However, targeting a specific ethnic community with nationality deprivation had a discriminatory effect. Tigranna Zakaryan, Report on Citizenship Law: Uganda, GLOBALCIT, April 2020, p. 12, https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/66750/RSC_GLOBALCIT_CR_2020_8.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 26 Daily Monitor, Maragoli minority group to be recognised soon, April 11, 2021. Available at https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/special-reports/maragoli-minority-group-to-be-recognised-soon-3357614 27 Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, The Benet’s struggle to secure their land, July 2019, available at https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-benets-struggle-to-secure-a4-1.pdf 28Since 2003, the Benet Lobby Group in concert with other civil society organisations have pursued legal action against UWA. Among the steps the government has taken to end the long-standing conflicts between the Benet community and UWA is the government’s decision to surrender 8,250 hectares to the landless Benet. For more information, please see: Daily Monitor, 1 dead as locals, UWA clash over parkland, July 29, 2020, available at https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/1-deadas-locals-uwa-clash-over-parkland--1909548; Daily Monitor, Govt orders UWA to surrender 8,000 hectares to Kween locals, August 03, 2020, Available at https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/govt-orders-uwa-to-surrender-8-000hectares-to-kween-locals-1913070 29 https://ugandaradionetwork.com/story/bakingwe-tribe-requests-constitutional-recognition 30 Petitions from Bagabo and Bakingwe in Kasese: file:///C:/Users/Agnes/AppData/Local/Temp/Petition%20of%20the%20Bakigwe%20and%20Bagabo%20Ethnic%20Minorities%2 0to%20be%20included%20in%20the%20Constitution%20of%20the%20Republic%20of%20Uganda.pdf. 31 Tigranna Zakaryan, Report on Citizenship Law: Uganda, GLOBALCIT, April 2020, p. 5-6, https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/66750/RSC_GLOBALCIT_CR_2020_8.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 25 6