Mbale land board disbanded

MBALE. Local Government Accounts Committee of Parliament has ordered the termination of the services of Mbale District Land Board, accusing its members of incompetence and aiding land grabbing.
“The district land board is null and void and should be dismissed because it was constituted unlawfully and its officials have been operating in connivance to aid land grabbing,” Mr Reagan Okumu, the chairperson of the committee, said at the district headquarters last Thursday.
The committee is currently scrutinising the Auditor General’s report for the financial 2015/2016 and was meeting district and municipal leaders to answer queries on the misappropriation and mismanagement of public funds.
The committee ordered the secretary of the district land board, Mr Godfrey Mutenyo to record a statement over laxity to constitute the land board, among other accusations.
“The officials, including the secretary of the land board should be sanctioned, interdicted, and demoted for the inefficiency, laxity and fraudulent operations in connivance with land grabbers and causing loss of millions to the councils,” the committee heard. The committee also found out that the board deliberately, due to influence from district leadership, deviated from the law and denied other entities representation on the land board for wrong motives.
The committee also ordered for new processes to constitute the district land board in accordance with the law and warned district and municipal leadership against interference.
Mr Yusuf Masaba, a resident said this new development is overdue, describing the board as rotten and corrupt. “They operate like thieves not servants to the people. They are fraudsters in public offices,” he said.
Mr Masaba, however, said the problem of land grabbing needs only God’s intervention, saying all public institutions in the country have lost moral fiber.
Mr Salim Kassim, another resident, who claims ownership of plot 19 Nkokonjeru road in Mbale Town, claimed that the district land board in connivance with councillors allocated his plot to one identified as Abdallah Londa Mubaraka, commonly known as Bam, during his absence.
“They authorise people to take over plots yet the plots have owners with all relevant documents,” he said.
Mr Londa, however, denies the allegations. The residents of Namakwekwe Ward in Northern division also accuse the district land board of selling off a wetland along Mukamba lane to a land developer.
Mr Peter Woniala, one of the residents said district land board officials allocated the wetland yet such land is protected by the constitution and National Environment Act.
“This is a wetland, the underground water drains through this land to the drainage canal, and now that it has been allocated for development, the water will not flow and our houses will be choked and logged with water because of selfish interests of our leaders,” he said.
The Member of Parliament for Mbale Municipality, Mr Jack Wamai Wamanga attributed rampant land grabbing cases to corrupt leaders.
“Too much love for money than service delivery among leaders is the main cause of rampant land grabbing in our district,” he said.