Diocese, Mukono locals in bitter land row

Mukono diocesan leaders have started evicting what they term as 'squatters' on their land.

The first victims are those occupying five acres of land adjacent to St Luke Church in Kirangira Village, Mukono Municipality where five sitting tenants last week were evicted with their houses pulled down and crops destroyed.

However, the eviction is in total disregard of Mukono Resident District Commissioner, Ms Fatumah Nabitaka Ndisaba, directive to maintain the status quo.

 The land where residents are being evicted is already under dispute between the diocese and late Ham Mukasa’s family.

Early this month, Ms Ndisaba asked the Diocese not to evict the sitting tenants from the land, but instead write to the government to compensate them.

“Our role is to ensure everyone has a place to call home. We know Mukono Diocese has many people occupying its land and I advise them to liaise with the Ministry of Lands through the Land Fund to buy such land for the sitting tenants,” Ndisaba said recently.

But Mr Rogers Kityo, the diocesan treasurer, said  they cannot  sit back and watch when squatters are increasingly occupying Church land.

“It is not our responsibility to lobby government to buy our land and distribute it to squatters, if they [tenants] want, let them pursue that line,” he said during an interview on Sunday.

He wondered why the government is bent on defending the rights of squatters and ignores the landlords yet when it needs land to erect public schools and health centres, it turns to the Church.

“We have been very patient, but now are out to recover all our land occupied by squatters,” he said.

Mr Ibrahim Kaggwa, one of the affected residents at Kirangira Village said he rightfully acquired his 70ft by 30ft plot of land and was surprised to see a grader pulling down his house .

“I did not inherit that plot of land, I used my hard earned money to buy it and I cannot just let it go,” he vowed.

Ms Mary Kigozi, another resident said her late husband bought one acre in 1989 and overtime she has been battling grabbers.

“I am surprised that my plot was also fenced off by the Church,” she said.

Mr Peter Mulira, the lawyer of Ham Mukasa’s family, said the disputed land belongs to the family not the diocese. 

“That land was registered in the names of Ham Musaka in 1930 after acquiring it in 914,” he tweeted.

However, Mr Ronald Musoke, the legal officer of Church of Uganda, said the diocese acquired the land at Karangira from the late Dick Banoba and the title has never been in the name of Ham Mukasa.

He said encroachers on their land have frustrated their plan to carry out church projects.

Mukono Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Mr Henry Kitambula advised the affected residents to seek legal redress against illegal eviction.

“Let them [affected residents] seek a temporary injunction as we carry out investigations into how the eviction was conducted. What I have heard is that, there was no court order,” he said.

This is the fourth land dispute that is pitting the Church against residents in the area. Five years ago, Mukono diocesan leaders revealed that residents were illegally occupying 886-acre pieces of land both in Nakanyonyi Village, Nakifuma/Nagalama Town Council and in Kisweera Parish, which caused panic among 1,500 households currently occupying the land.

Although residents claim they have settled on the land for more than 30 years, diocesan leaders insist they acquired the contested land in 1926 from the British government and squatters have since then, been securing plots of land with the help of village council leaders.