Minister orders closure of Buikwe District lands office
What you need to know:
- The closure of the offices followed complaints by tenants of Budadiri Village that the district land board denied them chance to legalize their tenancy and instead favored moneyed people who have since acquired land titles.
Lands Minister, Ms Judith Nabakooba has ordered the immediate closure of the Buikwe District land board headquarters for three weeks to allow investigations into staff who are allegedly fueling land conflicts in the area.
“At first, we thought evictions are on privately owned land, but we have now discovered that the situation is worse on public land, the district land boards have fueled this by issuing land titles without following the right procedures,’’ she said on Friday while addressing residents of Bugoba Village, Nyenga Division ,Njeru Municipality .
The closure of the offices followed complaints by tenants of Budadiri Village that the district land board denied them chance to legalize their tenancy and instead favored moneyed people who have since acquired land titles.
‘‘In some areas, you find three people having duplicated titles on the same land,” Ms Nabakooba said as she also directed Mukono Zonal land office to immediately cancel the land titles for Plots 21, 22 and 23 on Block 346 Kyagwe- where purported new landlords aim to evict more than 2,500 people at Bugoba Village.
State Minister in the office of Vice President Diana Mutasingwa (L) and Lands minister, Judith Nabakooba (right) during a meeting at Bugoba Village, Nyenga Division, Njeru Municipality on October 1, 2021. PHOTO/DENIS SSEBWAMI
Buikwe District land board had in 2016 ordered the same, but no action was taken .
The state minister in the Office of the Vice President, also Buikwe District Woman Member of Parliament, Ms Diana Mutasingwa said many residents are having sleepless nights over rampant evictions and land grabbers in the area.
“I visited some of the affected villages last month and saw old people crying and I got touched,” she said.
Ms Nabakooba’s decision to close Buikwe District land board offices comes days after her junior minister, Sam Mayanja, also shut down Wakiso District lands’ office accusing staff of ‘‘massive fraud.’’
The minister Wednesday said although government introduced a computerized system to eliminate fraud, staff at Wakiso land offices have chosen to ignore it for unknown reasons.
Land continues to be a tough issue in many districts across Uganda with wealthy and politically well-connected individuals overly accused of evicting poor tenants from their ancestral or even public land.
