State House unit sucked into Fort Portal land case 

Kampala- The case in which two Kabarole District Land Board officials are accused of fraudulent conversion of land from leasehold to freehold has sucked in the State House Anti-Corruption Unit.

In a December 17 letter to Lt Col Edith Nakalema, the head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the complainant, Mr Hussein Juma, through his lawyers of Ssemengo and Advocates, said the investigations by the unit would interfere with the land case, which is already before courts of law.

He said the file Col Nakalema is investigating has already been sanctioned by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
“We hope that this has put our client’s case in clear perspective and restrain you from further causing an abuse of court process and abuse of the law,” the letter reads in part.

The petition to the State House unit is in regard to the case in which two officials of the Kabarole District Land Board; Mr Cyprian Rwaheru (chairperson) and Mr Peter Alinda (senior land management officer), are facing accusations of alleged forgery of a land transfer form, fraudulent procuring of a land title and uttering false documents of land board minutes of 2016.

It is alleged that the false document presented was in regard to conversion of a leasehold to freehold in favour of one Beatrice Nyindombi, which deprived the registered proprietor, Mr Juma, of land at Harugongo in Kabarole District.

The same case has since sucked in the Ministry of Lands acting director for land management, Ms Naome Kabanda, who is accused of providing false information to the DPP about the conversion of land from leasehold to freehold. 

Documents obtained by this newspaper shows that on June 29, Ms Kabanda wrote to the DPP, informing her that the conversion of land from leasehold to freehold was actually done under a contested land board minute on February 2016.

CID spokesperson Charles Twine said they are investigating the circumstances under which Ms Kabanda wrote a letter to the DPP, contradicting earlier information provided by the office of the commissioner for land registration.

“Her (Kabanda) act of writing to DPP even when DPP did not ask her to do so is seen as an attempt to frustrate and influence justice, which unfortunately DPP could not condone. DPP works closely with the police in conducting the matter up to its logical conclusion,” he said in an interview last week.

Mr Twine said the CID detectives have since summoned Ms Kabanda but she has not turned up.

In a December 17 letter, Mr Vincent Byendaimira, writing on behalf of the permanent secretary in the Lands ministry, invited the police detectives for an interface to have “the matter resolved and concluded.” 

Upon learning of the letter, on December 18, Mr Juma’s lawyers told the Lands ministry that the purported meeting with police intend to discuss a matter that is already before court.