Landowners must be compensated

These acts constitute a violation of the constitutional right to own property. Whereas the government enjoys the exclusive right to compulsorily take over or acquire a person’s land for public use or other justified reasons, the same must be done after adequately compensating the land-owner.

The construction of the road from Busega to Entebbe is one of the projects that will spur development and ease traffic congestion on Entebbe Road. However, this project is being marred by irregular evictions of uncompensated land owners by the UNRA, if what we see in the media reports is true.

These acts constitute a violation of the constitutional right to own property. Whereas the government enjoys the exclusive right to compulsorily take over or acquire a person’s land for public use or other justified reasons, the same must be done after adequately compensating the land-owner. Such payment must be fair and made promptly. This is in line with Article 26 (2) of our 1995 Constitution.
Adequate and prompt compensations should be made to the affected landowners. If this is not done, it would be unfair and illegal.

Andrew Katurubuki,
katurubukia@gmail.com