Show me land I stole, Museveni tells Opposition
President Museveni
What you need to know:
- Tribunals. President says government will establish land tribunals in all the sub-counties to handle any disagreement on private land that has been acquired by government for development.
- He says the government wants to amend Article 26 of the Constitution to address problems caused by opportunists who after learning that the government is intending to carry out a project in an area, they go to the villagers and start buying land cheaply and later demand high amount from government in compensation, which government cannot easily pay and this stalls the implementation of the project.
LIRA. President Museveni has challenged the Opposition who are decampaigning the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2017 to tell him whose land he has stolen in the past 31 years he has been in power.
The President said the Opposition is decampaigning the land Bill because they want to use it to gain political capital for their campaigns in future by turning around to deceive the people that the NRM government has not brought any development.
“Opposition don’t want the NRM government to carry out any developments so that they continue deceiving the people that Museveni wants to steal your land. I want anyone to show me any two acres of land I have stolen from anybody in the last 31 years I have been in power. So these are total lies by Opposition...,” the President said.
The proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017 is intended to empower the government or local government to take possession of the declared property upon depositing the compensation awarded for the property with court, pending determination by the court of the disputed compensation awarded to the property owner or person having an interest in or right over the property.
President Museveni on Tuesday appeared on a radio talk show on Unity Fm in Lira Municipality where he stressed the need for the constitutional amendment of Article 26 to enable government acquire private land for development.
“After listening to all these lies I then decided that let me go and counter these lies by myself on radios.... That is why I am traversing the country to educate the public on why it is important for the government to acquire private land for development.” Mr Museveni added.
He revealed that government will establish land tribunals in all the sub-counties to handle any disagreement on private land that has been acquired by government for development. He said this is why government is pushing for the amendment of Article 26 of the Constitution.
Mr Museveni said government will use the Government Chief Valuer to value any private land that governments wants to acquire for development, but if the owner of the land is dissatisfied with the amount given by government, he can take the money but still has the liberty to lodge their complaint with the tribunal that will hear the complaint and determine the value of the land as government goes ahead with the implementation of developmental project.
“The tribunal will not be formed from the people in the sub-county, but will come from the centre. People who are highly trained will be deployed at the sub-counties where there is any land issues. We shall recruit professionals who are highly trained....,” Mr Museveni explained.
The President said private land will only be acquired by government for development, but it will not be given to any private investor.
“Private investors will have to negotiate with the land owners and buy from them on the agreed amount,” the President said.
