Land probe: Tycoon Abid Alam released on police bond

Kampala businessman Abid Alam of the Alam group of companies has been released from police custody following his arrest on Wednesday.
Mr Emilian Kayima, the Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson, said Alam was released on Thursday morning on police bond as investigations into allegations of land grabbing against him continue.

Mr Alam, the proprietor of Kaliro sugar works, steel rolling mills and Mityana farm enterprises was on Wednesday arrested on orders of the chairperson land commission of inquiry, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire for alleged forceful eviction of people in Mubende.
Alam was arrested by counter terrorism police and detained at Wandegeya police station.

His troubles started when he defied the commission’s orders that prohibited any business from taking place on the disputed land.
The land in question is in Bukoba, Mubende District, where he owns a sugarcane plantation. According to the evidence presented to the commission in September this year, Mr Alam reportedly hired machete-wielding men to attack residents.
It was after gathering evidence that the commission stopped all the transactions on the land until further notice, but the business mogul snubbed the directive and allegedly authorized the eviction of several other residents.

Mr Alam however claims the 5,747 acres of land being disputed are his, after buying it at a total of Shs200 million from different people.
The said land was part of 12 square mile of land that was given to the World War II ex-service men in 1956 to settle in.