Over 20,000 people threatened with illegal evictions
By Our Reporter
in Buikwe
Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba has directed the Buikwe district land board to cancel all land titles that were fraudulently issued to three persons on land at Kikondo cell in Njeru municipality.
The trio are Nicholas Bonanebye, Moses Buyondo, and Irene Birah Nakkungu who claim land measuring 74 acres, 44 acres, and 30 acres respectively. It is a freehold sited on Kyaggwe Block 323 according to the information in the lands ministry’s registration system.
Nabakooba gave the directives during a meeting she held in Buikwe with the affected persons .
“Cancel the land titles and write a letter to the ministry so that the registrar makes changes in the documents. I am going to write to the State House Anti-corruption and the Police Land Protection Unit to find out who was behind this so that they account for violating the law,”the Minister stated .
The minister also gave the RDC and the Chairperson of the District Land Board two weeks to document the history and activities on the land and write a report to her ministry to find a way forward.
This was after Mr Bruhan Mulongo, the Kikondo cell Chairperson, revealed that the situation in his area escalated two years ago when land occupants who were interested in getting titles were shocked to find that the land was already taken by the people not known in the area and wondering how they got the titles on disputed land.
“This area has more than 20,000 people and if they are to evict us, where are we going to go? We thank the minister for visiting our community to solve our issue,” he said.
Diana Mutasingwa, the Buikwe District Woman Member of Parliament who pushed for the intervention by the minister applauded Nabakooba for shining a ray of hope to the residents.
“These people have been fighting the fraudulent acquisition of land titles for their land they have settled on for a long time. The land grabbers have been threatening them with eviction which we cannot accept,” she told the minister.
Mr Hakim Kirigwa, the Deputy RDC assured the lands minister that he is going to act immediately and work together with the District Land Board and the Areal Land Committee to ensure that her directives are executed.
She encouraged residents to embrace government programs especially the Parish Development Model (PDM) aimed at elevating the living standards of Ugandans in the rural areas and warned against giving money to the PDM leaders in the form of bribes.
