Ex-minister Lumu appears before land probe

Kampala. Uganda’s first minister of Health, Dr Emmanuel Lumu, yesterday appeared before the Land Commission but could not tell the probe team how he acquired the land in Makerere, Kagugube Zone.
Dr Lumu was brought to the Commission investigating land matters by his daughter Ms Vivian Kityo, the founder and Director of Wakisa Ministries, a non-governmental organisations looking after girls in crisis pregnancy, in Bakuli a Kampala suburb.

Last week, the Commission chairperson, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, demanded Dr Lumu appears despite his ailing condition. However, he was pushed in a wheel chair and could only mention his name.
Ms Kityo reported that her father could hardly remember her children and that recalling details of the land transactions in Makerere, Kagugube Zone, would be a tall order due to his advanced age.

Dr Lumu, the man famed for overseeing the building of district hospitals during the post-independence government of Dr Milton Obote now 102 years, is accused of fraudulently acquiring 10 plots of land in Makerere, Kagugube Zone which he later sold to different people.
Upon seeing his condition, the Commission lead counsel, Mr Ebert Byenkya, making reference to Section 9 subsection II of the commission’s terms of reference, requested that the commission collects evidence from witnesses by other means than open testimony.

Justice Bamugemereire concurred with Mr Byenkya and requested the family to avail information when it is best for them to interact with Dr Lumu.
The land probe team is investigating ownership of Block 9 Plot 351 – 360 that was registered in the name of Louisa Nnalongo Nanyonga as of April 15, 1961.
Nanyonga’s 78-year-old daughter Rosemary Nabukenya petitioned the Justice Bamugemereire-led commission, accusing Dr Lumu of fraudulently transferring the land into his name.

Ms Nabukenya told the commission that as a result, Ms Gladys Mukula and the former LCI chairman want to evict her from the land.
Appearing before the commission last week, Nabukenya alleged that Dr Lumu stole documents related to the 10 plots of land from her blind mother and later sold them off.
Before appearing at the Commission yesterday, Dr Lumu’s daughter Harriet Nanteza Lumu, told the commission that she neither knew how her father acquired the land nor how he transferred the title from Nanyonga to his own name.

“I thought the land belongs to my Dad. My Dad is not a young person. Its puzzling me how this came to be,” Ms Nanteza said when she was shown land titles transferred into Dr Lumu’s name from late Nanyonga’s.
Nanteza said her father gave her plot 355, which she later transferred into her mother’s name before selling to Bernard Katehungwa.

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