Govt gives 8,000 land titles to Kayunga locals

Government has delivered 8,000 freehold land titles to tenants in Kayunga District after six years of waiting .
According to Mr Andrew Muwonge, the district chairperson, the titles are awaiting distribution.
“We will soon draw a programme to start distributing the titles to beneficiaries,” he said on Wednesday .
Mr Muwonge, however, said some tenants who failed to submit their particulars will not benefit, adding that they are to blame.
The State Minister for Housing, Ms Persis Namuganza, initiated the project in 2017 targeting 20,000 beneficiaries in 16 villages in Kitimbwa and Kayonza who are living on government land.
Ms Namuganza had told the residents that they were to receive their titles by April 2018 but the was process delayed due to alleged political interference and lack of funds.
Their land had illegally been sold by Kayunga District Land Board in 2014 to Kayunga Sugar Works Ltd, a subsidiary of Madhvani Group of Companies.
Madhvani had bought the land at an unspecified price to grow sugarcane. 
However, on learning about the “illegal” land transaction, the then district chairperson, Mr Stephen Dagada, suspended members of the board implicated in the scam and refunded the Shs200m partial payment that the company had made.
According to Ms Namuganza, the titles are intended to strengthen land occupancy of the tenants given that there are also oil prospects in the area.
During the Kayunga by-election campaigns last December, President Museveni told residents that he had handed over two titles to beneficiaries, promising that the rest would be given out later.
Mr Isaac Kanzaali, the Kitimbwa Town Council mayor, lauded the government for fulfilling its promise.
“We had lost hope, but if the titles are now at the district, we thank the President for fulfilling the pledge,” Mr Kanzaali said.
The government is also in the process of  issuing free land titles to at least 1,300 households  in neighbouring Nakasongola District.
The beneficiaries are in eight villages across Kalungi, Kalongo, and Lwampanga sub-counties.
This comes after the government successfully compensated the absentee landlords who owned the land they currently occupy.
Last week, President Museveni also kicked off the distribution of issuing titles to 275,000 families and 630 clans in the greater northern region.