Minister probes district officials over land grabbing
Lands minister Judith Nabakooba
Lands minister Judith Nabakooba is investigating officials in her docket over allegations that they are involved in a spate of dubious land deals, targeting poor bibanja owners.
The minister’s intervention follows reports from residents of Nakaseke that some officials from the district zonal land office were conniving with wealthy people to grab land.
During a meeting with Ms Nabakooba at Ngoma Town Council on Tuesday, the residents said the zonal land officers had become what they described as small “gods’’ who overcharge them for services and are involved in land grabbing.
The minister said she would write to her Local Government counterpart, Mr Raphael Magyezi, over the matter.
Ms Nabakooba added that the district land board would be investigated over the allegations.
“What people need is service delivery and not anything hampering it. You must ensure equity when you are delivering services,” Ms Nabakooba said.
On the issue of residents who are battling land conflicts in court, the minister asked them to liaise with their area MPs so that she can convene a meeting with them (legislators) and find a solution.
During her visit, Ms Nabakooba also intervened in a family land conflict at Bulemezi Block 973, plots 3,4,5 and Bulemezi Block 953 Plot 4 at Bulungi Kyambalataka Estate.
The disputed 10-square metre piece of land is registered under Kulistofa Lwantoneza, Anania Mukyonda, Yozefu Nsaizi, and Yozefu Kamya as tenants with equal share.
They leased the land on June 23, 1980.
The lease was further extended for 44 years from initial five years. The four have since passed on and the estate handed over to the heirs.
The land conflict was sparked off by refusal of the first three families on the land titles to surrender the shares of the fourth holder (Yosefu Kamya) claiming that he had sold his shares.
However, Ms Rose Naluyima, a representative of the fourth family, blamed the matter on the unwillingness of the three families to give them their share.
Ms Nabakooba asked the family members to give her office authentic documents of the land in question so that she can study them further.
