Residents seek Museveni hand in Wakiso land row

More than 1,000 distraught families from five villages in Wakiso District through their local leaders have requested President Museveni to intervene in a land dispute. 

 The disputed land is on Block 53 Plot 15 measuring 1044.9 acres in Namayumba sub-county. The land, which covers villages of Busamba, Kanziro, Gayaza, Kinyika and Ngondwe, is now a target of private land dealers who have pitched camp in the area.

 Enraged residents, who spoke to Daily Monitor at the weekend, asked the President to intervene and protect the interests of bibanja holders who are now living in fear of eviction as family members fight over ownership of the land. 

Eviction fears

 “Our fathers were buried here and they even participated in the 1980-1986 liberation war that brought the NRM [National Resistance Movement] government into power,” said one of the aggrieved residents who only identified himself as Walusimbi. He declined to disclose his identity for personal security reasons.

Another female resident, who is also a member of the Walusimbi household, said: “We cannot be refugees in our country. We are Ugandans. We want the President to come in and stop these land dealers in Busamba or else we will mobilise our people and defend our bibanja. We are law-abiding citizens and we have been paying busuulu (nominal ground rates), we don’t want to be provoked.” 

 Thousands of bibanja holders in the area have also requested President Museveni to direct Uganda Land Commission (ULC) and Lands minister Judith Nabakooba to investigate the ownership of the disputed land with the view of resettling the affected families through the Land Fund.

 Another resident, Mr Richards Lufuuma, said: “We have lived here for generations, we have buried our children here. We cannot be pushed away. We want the President to look into this matter before it’s too late…. We hear a powerful woman with connections in higher places bought 300 acres of this land and now she is targeting our bibanja. Why can’t the President instruct his people in the Ministry of Lands to pay off this woman and leave us alone? Why evict innocent people?”

 The residents have also accused  Mr Fredrick Kasibante, a resident of Gayaza, of conniving with private land dealers to compel unsuspecting bibanja owners to agree on the demarcation of boundaries so that families get equal pieces of the disputed land.

 The disputed land was previously owned by a one Kasamba. When he passed on, Gabriel Lugujja inherited the land. It is alleged that Lugujja was killed during the Bush War in the 1980s.

After Lugujja’s death, his son Edward Ssemitala Kinagomba took over as the administrator of the land. When he passed on in 1988, clan members appointed his son Deogratius Ssentamu as an administrator. When Ssentamu went to live in Canada, he asked Mathias Mulumba Junior, another child in the family to take on the role of acting administrator of the land.

But some members of Kasamba’s family are now claiming ownership, to the dismay of Kinagomba’s relatives. The dispute started last month, with bibanja holders scared of being evicted.

Locals said land dealers in connivance with some of Kasamba’s relatives started surveying the land early this month, resulting in protests from the Kinagomba family.

 Ms Nabakooba and Wakiso Resident District Commissioner Justine Mbabazi, however, intervened and stopped the survey exercise, pending an investigation.   

 Deogratious Ssentamu, from Kinagomba’s family, has also petitioned the President and the Administrator General to intervene in the matter.  Mr Ssentamu and another group of Kinagomba family members oppose attempts to evict bibanja owners on the disputed land. They have asked Ms Nabakooba and RDC to investigate what they called “fraudulent title deed” and letters of administration to three people, led by Mr Kasibante, who are claiming to be the managers of the Kinagomba estate.   

 But in a December 27, 2022 letter, Mr Kasibante said the children from the family of the late Kinagomba were confused and their claim to own the disputed Busamba land was not true.

 In the letter, Kasibante said children of late Kinagomba led by Mr Mulumba  claim to be in charge of the land which is not true.  However, Mr Mulumba, through Mungoma Justine and Company Advocates,  challenged Mr Kasibante to show evidence of his distortions and threatened to sue him for defamation. He also reminded him about the sub-judice rule and a civil suit No.324 of 2017 challenging people who claim to be the administrators of the land in question.  

 Mulumba  recently said he would not allow the land to be divided again.

He suggested that some of the people advocating for the division of land should be subjected to a DNA test, but the suggestion was rejected by some family members.

Mr Mulumba added that original land documents indicate that Lubajja was not the title holder, but was a trustee of the land.

Minister intervenes

 When contacted at the weekend, Ms Nabakooba confirmed receiving the petition from more than 1,000 bibanja owners and said the matter is being investigated.

“No one is going to be evicted, the law protects bibanja owners,” Ms Nabakooba said, adding,  “The NRM government cannot allow illegal evictions. In any case, the law allows the landlord to negotiate with a kibanja owner but when the two sides fail to agree, the solution is busuulu. As a pro-people government, we are activating the Land Fund to pay off land lords and sensitise bibanja holders in the country to know their rights,” she said.

  She added: “We stopped the people who were surveying Busamba land and opened investigations into ownership wrangles. We want to invite the family and resolve the disputes. Bibanja owners should stay calm as we resolve these issues.” 

 In December last year, Ms Nabakooba stopped the demarcation of the land in question and any evictions.

background

    In December 2022, more than  1,000 occupants of Busiro Block 53 Plot 15 of land measuring 1044.9 acres [over 442 hectares] claimed that their occupation was being threatened by people who were demarcating the land and want to evict them.

The occupants have petitioned the Wakiso RDC, Lands minister and President Museveni to intervene in the dispute between Kasamba and Kinagomba’s families. The two families are claiming ownership of the land, that covers five villages in Wakiso District.

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