Kayunga Christians vow not to leave disputed land for hospital

Angry Christians of Kayunga Catholic Parish in Kayunga Town, Kayunga District, have vowed not to vacate the contested piece of land for which they are engaged in an ownership row with Kayunga Regional Referral Hospital(KRRH).

Christians from the Catholic parish have, since Thursday last week, pitched camp at the disputed two-acre piece of land next to KRRH.

Their move is against an order issued by the State Minister for Lands, Mr Sam Mayanja, who last week visited Kayunga District to mediate in the land row and ordered the Catholic parish to vacate the land so that Kayunga Regional Referral Hospital can go on with its planned developments.

After inspecting the disputed prime piece of land, with several district officials among them; Mr Moses Karangwa, the Kayunga District NRM chairperson; Ms Rosette Sikahwa, the Kayunga District Police Commissioner; Ms Phionah Barungi, the Senior Presidential Assistant on Special Duties, and others, minister Mayanja declared that Kayunga Regional Referral Hospital was the rightful owner of the land.

The minister’s decision, however, did not please the Christians who vowed not to surrender the land.

Subsequently, Christians numbering about 20, among them leaders at the Parish led by Mr Ssalongo Kibirige, the Parish Treasurer, stormed the land with their beddings and plastic chairs and spent the night guarding the land.

They lit a bonfire and claimed they were grieving the unfair give-away of Church land by the minister.

"We shall not leave this place until our land is given back to us," a female devotee vowed.

They have since begun preparing meals from the site and spend their nights there, singing Church hymns and praying. They have also constructed a temporary toilet where they ease themselves.

Resistance

Although the minister had directed the Kayunga District Police Commander, Ms Sikahwa to provide security to Kayunga Regional Referral Hospital so that they carry out their construction uninterrupted, security has not yet ordered the protestors to vacate.

Mr Emmanuel Kayemba, the officer in charge of estates at the catholic parish, said the land in question was a donation to the parish by the late Maliko Kunsa in 1924.

The church later obtained a title in 1926. Late Kunsa was a catechist and was buried on the same piece of land, on which the first catholic church in the area was built before it was abandoned and another bigger one constructed in the nearby Namagabi Village.

The Catholic Church wants to construct a nursing school on the land and had in 2022 started the project but the district authorities halted the project saying the land belonged to the hospital.

The minister said that if the catholic church was not compensated for their land, the 12-year period during which they had to make the claim had long elapsed.

“The law is now not on your side even if you were not compensated, why did you take this long to complain?” he asked Rev Fr Emmanuel Walakira, the Parish Priest.

Way forward

However, he asked the Church leaders to write a formal complaint which the minister said would be taken to President Museveni for consideration of “compassionate compensation”.

But Mr Kibirige at the weekend dismissed the minister’s interpretation of the law, asserting that they would take the matter to courts of law.

“The minister has no powers to give away our land,” Mr Kibirige said.

Mr Moses Karangwa, the Kayunga District National Resistance Movement chairperson and a pillar in the Catholic Church in Lugazi Diocese, promised to use all avenues at his disposal to ensure the Church repossesses its land.