Judith Nabakooba the Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister, has taken on land brokers who are fueling illegal land evictions warning that they will be arrested and prosecuted in the courts of law.
Speaking in her home districts in Mityana Nabakooba told the resident to keep a keen eye on land brokers -saying they have created a “big mess” in land matters.
In a meeting she held to ease tensions, Nabakooba urged the residents to be cautious of middlemen who pretend to be acting on behalf of land owners-promising people land titles or letters of administration.-through misrepresentation.
“I urge you to be extremely careful of the kind of people who come to you as brokers. Some of these people will want to take advantage mostly when they learn that you do not have knowledge on certain land matters and processes .
“The challenge we usually face is that some of you get into land problems and take long to report the matter to the authorities. Please always report these issues early enough.”
Nabakooba’s visit to the area followed eviction of residents from their homes by a one Ddungu Buuza after obtaining ownership through fraudulent processes.
The disputed land is located in Namigave village, Kikandwa sub-county in Mityana district where a family of six accused Buuza of deceptively obtaining ownership of their land measuring 80, 250 acres and one square mile.
The family said they consulted Buuza who they considered to be a trusted family friend on how to obtain letters of administration.
According to one of the family members identified as David Mpiima, they asked Buuza to help them get land titles for their land.
“Buuza came to us when we had disagreements as a family. We asked him to help us get letters of administration and land titles for our land which he agreed to do,” Mpiima said, adding that they resolved to sell to Buuza 30 acres of land at a cost of sh450m.
Mpiima however said he convinced them to make an agreement with him, showing they had sold the land to him after promising he would pay the money over time.
“We trusted Buuza because he was a family friend. So, we entered into an agreement with him that he had bought 30 acres of land .We did not question his motives because we thought he would eventually pay up,” Mpiima said.
At the center of this dispute were accusations and counter accusations of the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Africano Aharikundira, who residents pinned of conspiring with Buuza to illegal grab their land and evict them .
The residents who showed anger during the meeting claimed Aharikundira was protecting and colluding with Buuza to render them homeless.
“We are skeptical of our RDC. We believe he has been working with Ddungu who has been making our life hard by rendering us homeless after dgrabbing of our land,” a woman who preferred anonymity told our reporters.
The residents were however urged to keep calm by the Busunju Town Officer-in-charge, John Mafabi, who told them Buuza was arrested with the aim of bringing him to order.
“I urge you residents to keep calm. When Buuza was arrested from Kikandwa, we felt he needed to be taken to Mityana so we showed him that what he was doing was wrong.
The minister assured the residents that the lands ministry would thoroughly investigate the matter to get to its logical conclusion.
“We are going to investigate these allegations. We need to know how exactly Buuza was able to get the land title,” she said, adding that if it’s indeed true, he defrauded the residents, all the agreements made would be canceled by the High Court.
