Besigye pledges to return all grabbed land to owners

FDC presidential candidate addresses his supporters in Kibuku yesterday. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa

Jinja/Kampala- FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has warned that the rampant land-stealing in diverse parts of the country will breed insecurity unless government stops it.

Dr Besigye promised that if he is elected president, his government will ensure that all the land grabbed or acquired illegally is returned to the rightful owners.

“When we come to power, the law will work and whoever is getting the land wrongly, will lose it,” he told journalists in Jinja District yesterday.

Dr Besigye was addressing a press conference on his campaign trail in Busoga sub-region. He said his statement on land-grabbing has been provoked by the chain of complaints from the local people in the areas he had been to since the presidential campaigns started on November 9.

“I was prompted to make this statement ahead of our official launch of the manifesto because of the bombardment that I have received in Busoga sub-region regarding massive land-grabbing, besides having the same serious problem in Teso, northern Uganda, Buganda and Bunyoro. I would not continue with my campaigns without making an appeal to government because I can see a serious security problem coming [up] due to the magnitude of the complaints,” Dr Besigye said.

He accused government officials, whom he did not name, of evicting people from large tracts of land under the guise of reclaiming public land, which is later sold off to purported investors, leaving the occupants landless.

Information minister Jim Muhwezi challenged Dr Besigye to name government officials involved in land-grabbing. “He should have named the people involved. The government position is clear: we have been protecting Ugandans from land-grabbers and the President has many times intervened to institute committees to investigate such cases,” Maj Gen Muhwezi said.

Dr Besigye accused government of taking advantage of people’s ignorance of the law to evict them from their land.
However, Maj Gen Muhwezi, refuted the accusation.

“There is no way we can take advantage of people’s lack of knowledge [of the law] to evict them. It has never happened and the government has not been found wanting when it comes to the issues of land in this country,” he insisted.

Past cases of land wrangles

1.Apa in Amuru/Adjumani, where women undressed to protest the government move to demarcate it.
2.Albertine region. Up to 700 hectares in Buliisa District are reported to have been acquired inappropriately by land speculators.
3.More than 500 people were evicted by an investor in Kiziranfumbi in Hoima in March this year. They are now living in a camp.
4.Families were displaced in Mubende District by a carbon-handling firm in Mubende in 2010.
5.There has been Bukaleba Forest Reserve land wrangle between the communities and government.