Retired soldier leaves agric varsity hopes in the balance
The university, an initiative of President Museveni, was meant to have been established in Sanga in Kiruhura District. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Capt (rtd) David Bashaijja is said to have taken over several square miles of the land meant to house the proposed university.
The planned establishment of an agricultural technology university is hanging in the balance after a Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) reservist took over a large proportion of the land on which it was meant to be established.
The university, an initiative of President Museveni, was meant to have been established in Sanga in Kiruhura District.
Sources within both Education and Agriculture ministries told the Monitor earlier in the week that construction had been scheduled to commence early next financial year. The plans have, however, since been put on hold after a reservist, Capt David Bashaijja, took over several square miles of the land.
The land is part of a government stock farm run by the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRC&DB), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.
NAGRC&DB management in a February 12, letter asked State House Anti-Corruption Unit to intervene in the matter.
“In the 1990s, a one retired Capt David Bashaija forcefully occupied about one square mile of the government farm and resisted several eviction attempts by the authorities at the time,” the letter reads .
Capt Bashaija declined comment on the matter, but lashed out at NAGRC&DB for taking the matter to social media.
Museveni intervenes
President Museveni intervened in the matter and penned a November 20, 2000 letter, a copy of which we have seen. In the letter, Mr Museveni directed the Attorney General to take charge and resolve the matter.
“It has been reported to me that the above-mentioned (rtd Capt Bashaija), a resident of Mbarara District, has taken over government land in that district as under (1) part of Mbarara Stock Farm (2) part of government land at Sanga Research Station. This is to direct you to look into this and, if true, cause his immediate prosecution and action,” Mr Museveni wrote.
On August 24, 2006, Mr Bright Rwamirama, the State minister for Animal Industry, sent a written request to the Minister of State for Lands and the commissioner of Land Registry. Mr Rwamirama asked that surveys be carried out and titles be issued on land in which the government had an interest.
“We request that no land survey or issuance of land titles is allowed for any of our land without our consent,” Mr Rwamirama wrote, further imploring the Lands ministry to assist his ministry acquire land titles for several government farms.
The land for which the ministry sought to obtain titles include Sanga Field Station in Kiruhura, Kasolwe Stock Farm in Kamuli; Ruhengyere Ranch in Kiruhura; Nshaasha Dairy Cross Breeding Ranch in Kiruhura; Njeru Stock Farm in Buikwe; Rubona Stock Farm in Kabarole; Maruzi Ranch in Apac; Livestock Experimental Station in Wakiso, as well as Acholi and Aswa ranches in Kitgum.
“The titles fraudulently acquired should be cancelled immediately. This will help us to carry out national development programmes without due interference. The Ministry of Lands also ought to support our efforts to urgently acquire land titles for all our lands countrywide,” Mr Rwamirama wrote in the letter copied to, among others, the Attorney General.
Among the titles the ministry sought to have cancelled was that of Capt Bashaija.
Writing back to Mr Rwamirama in a May 30, 2013 letter, F Ninziiri pointed out—on behalf of the Attorney General—that it was not necessary to cancel the title as it had lapsed.
“This is to inform you that we have been reliably informed by the commissioner-Land Registration, that there is no need to cancel the Certificate of Title acquired by Capt Bashaija and his accomplices because the lease he acquired expired by effluxion of time and the same was noted on the register. Therefore, he can be evicted from the same land since he is occupying it illegally,” he wrote.
It was not possible to establish whether the Attorney General carried out the investigation as ordered by the President, but if the February 12 letter that NAGRC&DB addressed to State House Anti-Corruption Unit is anything to go by, Mr Museveni’s intervention did not deter the reservist from encroaching on even more government land.
“Despite the above, Capt David Bashaija kept returning to the subject land and on February 11, 2024, commenced grading and parcelling out the subject land into plots for sale and has since erected a roadside land sale advert,” NAGRC&DB’s executive director wrote.
