Bouncers beat up residents over land

More than 1,000 residents residing on the contested prime land in Wakiso are up in arms with rowdy bouncers, whom they accuse of terrorising them.

The disputed land on Busiro Block 53, Plot 15, measures1,044.9 acres.

A simmering family land conflict has engulfed the estate of the late Gabudyeri Lubajja since last year when private land dealers allegedly embarked on demarcating the land on the orders of alleged administrators of the land.

This leaves about 1,000 bibanja holders at risk of eviction.

 A section of residents yesterday stormed Kawempe Police Station accusing police of neglecting them, adding that  they are living in fear over bouncers who attack them.

 The angry residents say the bouncers were deployed at the estate in December last year to facilitate demarcations on the land by new developers.

 In an interview with Daily Monitor, Mr Lawrence Ssekyanzi, a resident, said the bouncers beat him up on Monday.

He said the more than 20 bouncers move with pangas and sticks  to scare residents away.

 “These bouncers wanted to survey my land forcefully and asked me to hand over my agreement and national ID promising to give him a land title. When I refused, they blocked me as I was going back home and beat me up,” Mr Ssekyanzi said.

He said he inherited the plot of land (50 by 100 feet) from his late father, who bought the land 40 years ago.

 Mr Joachim Kyibabu, another resident, who was also allegedly attacked on Tuesday, said their efforts to get the case filed at area police stations were futile so they decided to report the case at Kawempe.

 “The four guys emerged from the black vehicle and threatened to beat me. The residents, who saw them, raised an alarm and they drove away when residents started converging ,” Mr Kyibabu said.

He said his deceased parents left behind two acres of land, adding that he has been among the residents forced to hand over the land agreements.

The land in question is also  being contested between bibanja holders and Lubajja’s family, who are also embroiled in wrangles among grandchildren.

 The affected villages include Busamba, Gayaza,  and Kanziro.

 The genesis of the problem started in December last year when Richard Ssemitala and Eusterius Ssegantebuka had, without family consent, allegedly sold part of the family land (150 acres) to Ms Berna Nakato, a land dealer in Busamba,  Namayumba sub-country.

 Mr Mathias Mulumba Ssegantebuka, another grandchild in the family of the late Lubajja, ran to court protesting the sale of the land by Mr Ssemitala and Ssegantebuka.

 The wrangles, which attracted the attention of top officials, saw the Lands minister, Ms Judith Nabakooba, halting all activities on the disputed land until investigations were complete.

 However, residents yesterday indicated that the ministers’ orders have been ignored.  They accused Ms Nakato of being behind the bouncers.

 “We want the minister to come herself on ground and tell us who the rightful owners of this land are because we have the bibanja and we have been paying the property tax,” Ms Florence Nakakande, a resident with three acres of land, said.

 Mr Fred Kiruge, one of the affected residents, asked government to come to their rescue .

 In an interview, Mr Ssegantebuka said the residents have been given up to June 1 to vacate the land or be evicted .

 He insisted that the new developer acquired the special land title fraudulently and the court is yet to announce the rightful owner. 

Mr Ssegantebuka said no one has the right to evict and terrorise the residents who are the bonafide owners until the court pronounces itself on the matter.

 “Despite the directives from court to halt any activity on the land, the bouncers are terrorising the bibanja owners. We tried to seek assistance from the area police stations but did help. They made us believe they are compromised, that is why we came here,” he said.

Police’s stand

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said they are investigating the claims of bouncers terrorising people, whom he said will be arraigned before court.

“We are going to carry out investigations to find out what is happening on the land and if we establish that some people are terrorising the residents, we shall arrest them,” Mr Onyango said.

We were unable to get a comment from Ms Berna Nakato, but Mr Onyango said they called her and she denied deploying the bouncers.

Mr Onyango said  Ms Nakato informed them that she just deployed about eight workers helping her to open boundaries.

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