How locals blocked eviction of six children, mother from ‘sold’ land

A mother and her six children have survived being evicted from a disputed family land and houses in Lira City following the intervention of the community.

Court bailiffs, on May 31, raided the home at Angwetangwet “A” Cell, Boke Ward, Lira City East Division and threw all the occupants and their belongings outside. They also destroyed items including windows and doors.

This came after the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lira City granted an order to evict Ms Janet Abeja and her six children from the disputed land and the family’s three houses.

Court agents locked the main house and disappeared, prompting irate residents to break the padlocks so that the children and their mother could access the house.  To date, Ms Abeja, who is a warder at Lira Prisons, is staying at the disputed home with her children.

Residents have threatened to deal with anybody who attempts to evict the family.

Genesis

In 2005, Ms Abeja and her husband, Mr Moses Guna, are said to have purchased a piece of land at Angwetangwet “A” Cell, Lira City, and later constructed three houses on it.

In 2017, however, Mr Guna, working with the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner for Refugees as a senior accounts assistant, vanished from home. 

Ms Abeja told Daily Monitor on Sunday that during this time, her husband did not offer support to his family.

Four years later, Mr Guna resurfaced. This time, not to reunite with the family but to evict it from the land. He sent the area village chairman with a letter to inform his wife that the developed family land had already been sold. The purported buyer happens to be his mother, Ms Beatrice Amongi.  

“We have been instructed by court to vacate the premises we currently occupy, two weeks from the date of this letter (December 15, 2021),” Mr Guna told his wife in a December 1, 2021 letter.

When his wife refused to leave, Mr Charles Ogwal Amute filed a civil suit at the Magistrate’s Court in Lira against his brother, Mr Guna, for allegedly selling the land and the three houses.

This publication established that Mr Guna did not file a defence, nor did he attend any court proceedings, causing the court to pass judgment in his absence.

In the December 1, 2021 letter, Mr Guna told his wife that the judgement was not in their favour and, therefore, she should vacate the premises.  

Ms Abeja claims her husband abandoned the family after accusing her of producing many children.

“When I conceived the sixth child, he started complaining. For you, you are like a stupid woman. You are producing like pigs and rats. Now I want to introduce you to the natural family planning method,” she narrated.    

“I met him when he was working as a records assistant at Anyeke Health Centre III, Oyam District, and was earning Shs75, 000 in 2001. Since Uganda Prisons Service was paying me some good money, I sponsored his further studies and currently, he earns more than Shs5 million,” she added.

Conspiracy?

Prior to the unsuccessful eviction, Mr Daniel Omara Atubo, the former minister of Lands, informed court that the plaintiff and the defendant are biological brothers.

Mr Atubo, who is the chief of Otengoro Olang clan, where the family belongs said they (brothers) conspired to bring the case to court to defeat the right of and to evict Ms Abeja from the  premises following a domestic brawl between the couple.  

Mr Atubo further informed the chief magistrate’s court in an April 4, 2022 letter that Mr Guna had abandoned his family on the land.

“This is a serious abuse of the court process and we request you not to grant order to evict Ms Janet Abeja and her six children as it will cause irreparable damage. Please treat the matter as extremely urgent in the interest of justice,” he said.

Mr Joseph Onap, the Otengoro Olang minister of lands, said Mr Guna allegedly conspired with his brothers and forged a sales agreement that the land had been sold to their mother. 

“We wanted to manage the issue at a clan level but he (Mr Guna) instead told us that his matter is being handled by court,” Mr Onap said.

Mr Onap referred the matter to their clan chief, Mr Atubo, who wrote to the Lira Chief Magistrate requesting court to allow him access to a file tendered in court by Mr Amute about the disputed family assets.  “After he received the photocopies of the said court documents, Mr Atubo perused through the file and discovered so many anomalies,” Mr Onap said.  

“One of them was forgery and the particular element of this forgery was the sale agreement where only the biological brothers signed as witnesses for the sale of the land. Secondly, none of the neighbours, who would have confirmed the land boundaries, signed the forged sale agreement,” he added.

In a statement recorded at Lira City East Police Station on May 10, Mr Atubo corroborated Mr Onap’s narrative.

“I immediately called in the clan meeting to invite Guna to come for the same but he refused, despite all efforts to reach him. I decided to write to the magistrate to give us the court records. After obtaining it, we discovered that this was a conspiracy between Mr Amute suing on behalf of their mother and the husband of the complainant, Mr Guna,” Mr Atubo said. 

He added: “The conspiracy was to misuse the court process to evict Ms Abeja from the family matrimony home. I suspected a lot of illegality and advised Ms Guna to report to the police for possible criminal action.”

The matter was taken to police for investigation, leading to Mr Amute’s arrest. Mr Onap added that when the mother was reached, she denied buying the land from  her son (Guna). 

But this newspaper could not independently verify this information.

After he and his agents attempted to carry out the eviction, Mr Guna was also reportedly arrested.

Mr Onap said when the file was prepared and submitted to the Resident Chief State Attorney for advice, he advised the police to prepare charges of forgery, causing malicious damage to property and obtaining things by fraud against Mr Guna and his agents. 

The state also advised the police to prepare separate additional charges of domestic violence against Mr Guna.

The file was sent back to the police, who did their work as it was instructed by the Resident Chief State Attorney.

“When the files were resubmitted to the Resident Chief State Attorney, he closed the forgery file. He said the matter is civil not criminal and the file for domestic violence is there. Nothing has been done on it up to now after the file was resubmitted to him,” Mr Onap said.

“This one makes me think the law as it is written favours women and children but in the application of the law, especially at the implementation level, it violates the rights of children and women to own property,” he added.  

When contacted, Mr Guna declined to comment on the issue, saying the matter was already handled by the court.

Background

What law on matrimonial property states 

The law relating to matrimonial property is hinged on the concept of marriage. For instance, the Supreme Court in the case of Julius Rwabinumi vs Hope Bahimbisomwe (civil appeal No. 10 of 2009) set the guidelines for sharing of property by a divorcing couple.

The basis of the court’s decision was Article 26 of the 1995 Constitution which recognises everyone’s right to own property either individually or in association with others. The property can be categorised into the following:

Property acquired before marriage: This shall be held solely by the spouse who acquired it.

Matrimonial property: That is property which the couples refer to as their matrimonial home, where they live and raise their children, and quite often earn a living by working on the land on which the home is. This shall be shared equally between the couple.

In the event of a divorce, no one should walk away empty-handed.

Other land disputes

 Land conflicts in the Lango Sub-region have resulted in the loss of lives, and the delay of several investment projects. Today, nearly half of the cases that end up in court are land-related, according to data at both the magistrate’s court and the High Court in Lira.

In Oyam District, a group of parents at Wanglobo PS killed Charles Keny, a retired UPDF soldier, in a land dispute between the institution and the deceased’s family in February 2014.

In August 2018, Tonny Ongiro was killed in Awei-bura Village, Loro Sub-county in Oyam District following a land dispute. In Lira, a woman and her daughter were killed in a land fight involving family members at Aloc ‘A’ Village, Aromo Sub-county in March 2020.   

In May 2021, at least four people died in land clashes involving a family and the administration of Akuca-witim Primary School in Oyam District.

In Kwania, four family members died after an assailant set their house ablaze in Barlwala ‘A’ Village in Inomo Sub-county in March 2019. 

Police believe the incident was triggered by a land dispute between the family and relatives.

In Kole, more than 100 households were left homeless after they were forcibly evicted by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) from a 391-acre disputed land in April.  

In Apac, more than 200 households were evicted from Maruzi ranch in January 2019. The affected persons allegedly encroached on the government ranch during the two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda.

Also, a dispute over the use of Aler farm has been raging since 2011, pitting 332 residents against Lira District leadership.  The 1,500 acres cover about 10 villages in both Kole and Lira.

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