Come down hard on Lands office officials

On Tuesday, the Commission of Inquiry into land matters heard that several people across the country risk losing their land to other parties due to an ongoing scam in the Land Registry, which has seen officials there issue land titles for pieces of land that already have existing land titles.

The senior registrar of titles in the Ministry of Lands, Ms Reula Ataro Bogere, said double titling is affecting old titles, many of which are not on the land information system.

She was appearing before the commission to explain circumstances under which she issued a special land title for Block 185, Plot 1181 in Namavundu to Peninah Karenge Busingye, putting 161 households at the risk of eviction.

In her own words, she “did not know the magnitude of the problem”. That was so casual an explanation to justify her carelessness and inefficiency.

The problem though is that cases of double titling have been occurring even on land with new titles that have been captured on the land information system and they are down to carelessness, inefficiency, corruption and collusion on the part of actors in the lands chain right from the area land committees, the district land boards, district land registries and in the Ministry of Lands.

On December 17, 2017, the Jinja Lands Registry issued a free hold title for Plot 19 Wilson Avenue to Ms Amina Negesa yet the plot already had an older title in the name of Mr Peter Kalibbala and the older title had been captured by the land information system.

Mr Kalibbala’s title could have been detected by simply entering the plot number, folio or volume numbers into the database, but that was not done. Someone was either sleeping on the job or opted not to do the job.

The application too was flawed. Owners of the land adjacent to Plot 19 had not appended their signatures to “Form 4” and the application was approved by members of the area land committee for Jinja Central Division and not Mpumudde Kimaka Division where the land is located.

Well, Plot 19 Wilson Avenue was saved because the second title was cancelled. The Namavundu land too will most likely be saved, but that is because that land is not owned by ordinary folk. What happens to land belonging to ordinary mortals? The only way they can be saved is by government coming down hard on all officials in the land acquisition chain.