By 2025, TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation will begin constructing a 1,443-kilometre pipeline that will carry crude oil from Uganda's Albertine Graben to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is one of the most consequential infrastructure projects in the region's history.
It is also one of the most underreported by local independent media.
International NGOs — including Inclusive Development International and BankTrack — have documented the pipeline's trajectory through ecologically sensitive areas: the Murchison Falls National Park buffer zone, 178 river and stream crossings, and the shores of Lake Victoria tributaries. Human rights organisations have recorded cases of inadequate compensation, forced relocation, and intimidation of affected communities.
What is absent from most of this coverage is the voice of Ugandan journalists — particularly those operating independently from government media houses, which have consistently framed EACOP as an unambiguous development triumph.
Rooted Stories spent three months in Hoima, Kikuube, and Kyotera districts, speaking with project-affected persons, local government officials, and civil society organisations working on accountability. This is the first of a five-part series.
"They told us we would be resettled before construction begins. That was two years ago. We are still waiting for the valuation report." — Farmer, Kikuube District