Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba has traversed Mityana district to stop land grabbers and help resolve numerous land conflicts.
Minister Judith Nabakooba camped in Mityana which also happens to be her home district to help end land evictions of bibanja holders.
Nabakooba who was in the company of the RDC of Mityana Nixon Kabuye and the area DPC visited three villages of Kitebere, Nkwaale and Saala A Kabule Ward. At Kitebere, local leaders led by Mr John Sekalembe and Nuhu Lutaaya told the minister how the administrator George William Memere the heir of Yozefu Musoke connived with a one Isaac Wasswa to terrorize residents and threatened to evict them from their bibanja holdings .
Nabakooba told the residents at Kitebere that if someone does not have a title, they cannot claim ownership of the land and all these people are just riding on their naivety to confuse them and grab their land. She explained that if the owner of the land died, those who come in his place have to bring letters of administration and they have to update records in their names as administrators before they engaged the bibanja land holders.
“I don’t want to hear someone claiming ownership of the land yet they don’t have documents to that effect. You have given us the plot and block of this land, we are going to put a caveat and no one will do anything from this land. Those of u who have bibanja that are not yet encroached on, use them,” Nabakooba stated adding that when her ministry find the rightful owners in their records, they will then advise on the way forward.
The minister later proceeded to Nkwaale where land at Dumba Estate that belonged to the late Albert Charles Ddumba is being contested. The land according to the DPC has three administrators who wanted to open boundaries for each to have their own share of the land.
The DPC said that he had together with the local leaders halted the exercise and asked the trio to bring the right documentation since a one Nantongo was also claiming to have ownership of the said land.
Local leaders that included Councillor Josephine Kigongo thanked the minister for always having finding time to intervene in land eviction cases where hundreds of people face eviction that will leave them homeless.
kigongo reported that residents are having sleepless nights on their land which is close to 400 acres as different people are claiming its ownership and threatening to evict bibanja owners.Kigongo asked the government through the minister to buy the land for them because they do not have the money to pay for the titles yet the land is their only means of survival.
“We also call for the streamlining of the law on busuulu to put an end to this mess. Local leaders, kindly be there for your people and stick your necks out for them to foster development.”
In her remarks, minister Nabakooba explained that the government is working hard to ensure that there is harmonious co-existence between landlords and bibanja owners and that is why they are constantly pushing for the president to get them money to buy land for people who are threatened with evictions .
“As you know, our needs as the government are quite many and land keeps on appreciating yet we also need to handle other things like roads, hospitals and education among other things. The president is however serious on this matter. When we were campaigning in Buganda, the land question was paramount everywhere we went,” Nabakooba said.
She pledged her ministry’s commitment to streamline issues relating to land to ensure that tension between landlords and bibanja owners is eased.
Nabakooba concluded her visit at Saala A Kabule Ward. Here, Francis Muwonge a representative of the village members said that some 100 homes and 600 people living on the disputed land are threatened with eviction .
The land has expired lease that belonged to a foreigner who passed away and was buried on the same land but different people come with titles claiming its ownership. Nabakooba asked the RDC to put a caveat on the land until the conflict is resolved .
