Probe committee fails to produce report on Museveni’s grabbed land

A committee set up by Sembabule Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Caleb Tukeikiriza to investigate how part of a 200-acre piece of land owned by President Museveni was grabbed by unscrupulous individuals has failed to deliver on its mandate five months later .

Last September, Mr Tukeikiriza constituted a four-member committee chaired by Mr William Rudunyonyoli to investigate the matter and deliver a report in two months . 

Mr Rudunyonyoli   is one of the witnesses who signed the President’s agreement during the purchase of the land in 1997. Other committee members included Mr Alfred Nunu, the chairperson of Kyarutageija Village, Mr Asuman Mwanje, the chairperson of Kawanda Sub- County, and Mr Faustine Ntambara, a resident.

The committee was tasked to carry out fresh boundary openings, register all sitting tenants, and submit a report to the district security committee in two months.

However ,Mr Tukeikiriza told this publication on Monday that he is yet to receive the   report from the committee .

“The committee informed us that they are progressing well with the report although still delayed by a few investigations that are worth a wait,” he said in a telephone on Monday

 However, this publication has established that the committee has not yet  carried  out fresh boundary opening and registering  all sitting tenants as it  indicated in its terms of reference. Some of the people who grabbed Mr Museveni’s land started as tenants, but have since constructed permanent buildings.

Part of the land has been leased to people to grow crops, which exposes it to land grabbers.

Of the 122 acres remaining, this publication has learnt that  78 acres have been rented out to local farmers, with each acre fetching Shs100,000 per planting season, which usually lasts four months.

One of the leaders in Sembabule District, who preferred anonymity to freely speak about  the issue, told Daily Monitor that the committee will never produce a produce report since part of the President’s land was grabbed by some powerful individuals in the district.

“I really doubt whether the  committee will  deliver on the task given it given the fact that  the parties involved are very powerful and will frustrate all the all processes aimed at recovering that land ,” a local leader in Sembabule ,said

She said  the management of Lutunku Community Polytechnic is  part of the cartel facilitating continuous grabbing of the Presidents’ land.

Ms Jolly Kasande , a councillor at Sembabule Town Council, noted that individuals are grabbing the  land to enrich themselves  yet Museveni’s ambition was to use the land to  transform lives of  the people of Lutunku.

“We have multitudes of unemployed youth in Sembabule who can use that land after being skilled at Lutunku Community Polytechnic, but it is being grabbed  by well-connected individuals,” he said Mr. Serapio Owukunda, the principal of Lutunku Community Polytechnic, declined to comment on the matter when this publication sought his comment on Monday .

But in a previous interview with this publication ,Mr Owukunda, denied reports that they are selling the donated land.

“We simply hire part of our land to generate some money to run the school,” he said .

Records show that Mr Museveni bought the land in 1997 from Mr Faustine Ntambara and donated it to the community of Lutunku in Kawanda Sub-county, Sembabule District, where Lutunku Community Polytechnic was constructed.

It is on the same land that the President constructed Kaguta Primary School. The Ministry of Education in partnership with Islamic Development Bank is also planning to construct structures that include BTVET training facilities, laboratories, and dormitories on the land.

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Sembabule is one of the districts in central Uganda with vast land occupied by mostly cattle keepers. 

However, some parts of the district such as Mateete and Mabindo have fertile soils, which have aided farming on a larger scale. The recent tarmacking of the main road connecting Masaka and Gomba districts has attracted many people looking for land for cultivation.

Due to increasing demand for land, hundreds of squatters have encroached on government ranches. Other unscrupulous individuals have also claimed plots of land where Bigo bya Mugenyi, a historical cultural site of the famous Chwezi Dynasty, is located in Ntuusi Sub-county.