Minister says land grabbers will be handled by the strong arm of the law
Land transactions to be moved online to fight corruption
BY OUR REPORTERS
The Ministry of Lands , Housing and Urban development has set up a national call center in a concerted national effort to end the rampant illegal land grabbing and evictions .
While launching the toll free National Call Center on land issues in Wandegeya ,Kampala , Minister of Lands , Hon. Judith Nabakooba vowed to end illegal evictions which have left many helpless Ugandans landless . “ When His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni entrusted us with this office; One of the key tasks he assigned us was to bring an end the rampant illegal land evictions in the country. During my term in this office, I have therefore prioritized the issue of land evictions -which must stop,” Nabakooba stated
The tough talking Minister noted that the illegal evictions have made lives of so many Ugandans difficult with many families throughout the country now living under the fear of being evicted and or thrown out of their homes by the notorious landgrabbers .
Nabakooba in effect assured the nation that she is presiding over a new era in a decaying land sector- stating that the Ministry is now streamlining all major public services by utilizing new technology innovations.
“It is against this background that the Ministry has decided to put in place a national call center on Land issues. The call center has a Toll-Free Line that is now available for the public to call on urgent issues of land. The Toll-Free line is 0 800 100 004 ,“ she said .
The Minister said that call center is operated by a team of well trained personnel with good communication skills to engage with the public and urged Ugandans to utilize the facility by calling the Toll Free line register complaints about the operations of the ministry and report landgrabbers.
“Ugandans are encouraged to report cases of illegal Land evictions, incidents of corruption and bribery ; delayed land transactions and general poor service delivery and absenteeism within the Ministry ,” Nabakooba said adding that the c Call center shall also be utilised by the general public to follow up on land compensation and valuation issues.
Ugandans should further use the new facility to seek information on -ongoing projects under the Ministry, report fraud and forgeries and those abating the same .
“ Commissioning this call center is part of our long-term strategy to improve service delivery through the use of Information Technologies. Our call center agents are well connected to all the relevant law enforcement agencies in the country,” she stated . Nabakooba explained that upon registering complaints and reported land eviction cases the ministry of Lands agents will quickly mobilise the relevant local authorities to respond immediately. “The cases and complaints will also be recorded for constant follow up by the Ministry to ensure effective and efficient resolution of reported cases .”
The Minister also promised to set up an online portal for use by the general public. The online portal will enable members of the public to access all relevant land related information. “This is still part of our Electronic Land Management vision to help overcome rampant cases of bribery, corruption and middle men in land matters,” Nabakooba said.
What are the issues Nabakooba must address rather urgently
The new measures have been welcomed by land experts who noted that there are long over-due. ”The Minister should move very quickly to restore sanity in the Land Zonal Officers where some registrars and their subordinate staff have been greatly compromised by tendencies of corruption. “There is total chaos in many Land Zonal Offices with titles disappearing ,delayed registration processes , double entries on title deeds -changing illegal changing of titles from one land tenure system to another ; not entering all titles on the new land registration systems among many others ,” land experts who declined to be named because they work within the sector -highlighted some of the issues bogging the Land registration in Uganda .
