Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba has intervened in land wrangles in Mubende where the locals accuse the area District Police Commander (DPC) of allegedly offering protection to land grabbers who illegally evicting tenants from their bibanja holdings .
The Minister who visited Kirwanyi in Mubende lashed out at the District Police Commander for allegedly taking sides in land disputes pitting the ordinary people against the powerful land grabbers now fighting for approximately 3 square miles disputed piece of land on Plot 1 Block 60 in Kituule Estate. Nabakooba assured hundreds of residents that government will protect them from illegal evictions.
The land in question which belonged to the late Zakaria Kikonyogo and currently under custody of Edith Nakabugo, Henry Kaaya, Nicholas Jackson is being contested by a one Naava Milly Namutebi.
“DPC, I am tired of hearing the word ‘trespass’ wherever I go. Who is this trespass? How can someone trespass on their own house or plot? Each time you want to arrest someone you use the word trespass, tell your OC on lands to get rid of the word trespass from his vocabulary. If people are on their land, they have their farms, houses and property ; how then can they be trespassers ” a visibily angry minister Nabakooba questioned a stunned DPC said.
According to Nabakooba security personnel in Mubende in their various operations have made the word ‘trespass’ lose meaning.
She explained that when the president sends them to do work, he wants them to work closely with the local leadership because their job is to protect Ugandans and their property..
“If I dare hear that you arrested people because of ‘trespass’ after I have left this place Mr DPC, you will have to hear from me,”Nabakooba warned.
The residents complained that they are harassed and threatened by the security operatives who work for the rich and mighty . They accused police of offering Naava protection and conniving with her to offer them (locals) summons of trespass on what is supposedly Naava’s land.
Mr Micheal Ntambi Muwereza the LCV Chairman Mubende said that Naava, uses police and the army to intimidate people and threaten them with evictions even when they have been on the land for decades .
“I have on many occasions held with her in my office asking her to present her land title but she has failed to do so. Instead we see security threatening people . There are people who have even been imprisoned for four years because of this land dispute and have never been brought to court,” the LCV Chairman revealed .
Muwereza sought for the minister’s intervention to see that justice is served for the incarcerated people and thousands of bibanja holders who face eviction from the land they have lived all their life .
MP Pascal Mbabazi of Buwekula County brought to the minister’s attention the fact that Mubende has become an epicenter for land grabbing. He explained that every sub-county in Buwekula has not less than five land related cases.
The legislator called upon the residents to be united in fighting land grabbers.
Hope Grania Nakazibwe the Woman MP of Mubende District asked the locals to have confidence in the government system and their leaders to deliver justice in the numerous land wrangles .
“We as your leaders we are going to stand with you. Let us have hope .
