Residents block archdiocese from surveying disputed land

Residents of Amagoro B Parish, Eastern Division in Tororo Municipality, Tororo District, at the weekend blocked Tororo Archdiocese from surveying land that houses the church’s hospital, claiming that it is theirs.

Residents threatened to attack the team of surveyors accompanied by leaders of the Catholic church if they carried out the exercise, prompting police to whisk them away.

The disputed land is in Amagoro “B’’ North on Busia Road in Tororo Town.
The church leadership contends that it acquired the 4.1 hectares of land comprising seven plots, including M46, M20, 21, 22, 83-87, 89-97, and St Anthony Hospital through Tororo Municipal Council in early 1967.

The church also claims it acquired the land title in 1981 after compensating the owners.
However, residents accuse the church of encroaching on their ancestral land on Plot 46.
“Under no circumstances are we going to release our land to the Church. They will not survey it,” Mr Stephen Onyango, a resident, said.

Affected
Mr Onyango said constant eviction threats from the Church leadership have crippled their plans to engage in development activities on their land.
“I inherited this land from my parents, but if the Church leadership is more interested in it, then it should pay me,’’ he said.
Mr Paul Magalu, the area councillor, said residents should be protected because they are protesting against land grabbing.

“The residents claim part of the land belongs to them. So they should be protected and heard instead of trying to evict them,” Mr Magalu said. However, Mr George Alfred Obore, the chairperson of the land rights advocacy in the archdiocese, said they acquired the disputed land legally in 1967.

“The diocese acquired the land through rightful procedure and subsequently acquired its land title,” he said, adding that decision to survey the land was to stop further encroachment on the land by neighbours and officials from Tororo Municipal Council.

Mr Obore said the land has since been allegedly parcelled out to individuals and some town council officials.
“Well knowing that the Church still has a running lease, some planners at Tororo Municipal Council leased out a section of their land fraudulently to some individuals and companies,” he said.

Council take
In July, Mr Paul Omoko, the town clerk, said they wanted to first verify the archdiocese’s title deed and the actual size of the land. “We have taken some steps to stop Tororo Archdiocese from proceeding to fence off and establish any development on the contested piece of land as we take further steps to verify if it is captured in the council plans,” he said then.

Mr Omoko said it was too early to determine who owns the contested land because there were reports that individuals had encroached on Tororo rock buffer zone, which ideally is supposed to be owned by Tororo Municipal Council.

During a recent tour of the district by the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters headed by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, Rev Fr Centurio Olaboro, the coordinator of Justice and Peace in Tororo Archdiocese, accused district employees of conniving with individuals to grab Church land.

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