By Witnessradio.org Team

Is it an epicenter of land grabbing in Uganda? In the near future, rural poor communities will find it hard to live in Mubende district as rich men and companies are claiming and involved in massive land evictions with impunity. Mubende, one of the oldest districts established in 1905 is known for its different types of minerals including gold.

Currently four rich men are helplessly evicting communities in three different sub counties in Mubende district. Although the location of the land and the people grabbing the land are different, the displacement methodology being applied is one and the same; first, these land grabbers have full protection from the office of the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), district land board and police all at the center of causing mayhem to indigenous communities to vacate land in order to pave way for whatever development is being planned. The Resident District Commissioner is a representative of the president in a district and appointed and answerable to president.

A massively poor, rights unaware and voiceless population have become as easy target for all sorts of violations including torture, intimidation, unlawful arrests and detention, destruction of homes, crops, animals, dwellings and schools among others. Apart from communities losing livelihoods, some families have lost their lives in the course of eviction or have been rendered disabled due to severe torture that they are subjected to in the process of eviction.

Courts in Mubende district have not been spared either as they have been used by economically powerful land grabbers to prefer trumped up charges against community leaders who oppose illegal land evictions. None of the four land cases mentioned, which does not have victims languishing in prison as a result of opposing land eviction. Charges range from aggravated robbery, criminal trespass, threatening violence to inciting violence among others.

The 20,000 families being evicted have lived on the land in question either since their births or their parents or grandparents were born, lived on and were buried there before anybody else allegedly got registered on such lands.

Individuals evicting communities include; Chien Ching-fu who is claiming 10,000 acres and evicting communities on over ten (10) villages of Butoloogo, Kyedikyo, Nakasozi, Namayindi, Kitebe, Kisiigwa, Mukiguluka, Busaabala, and Kicucuulo among others in Butoloogo and Maddudu sub-counties; Wilfred Bugingo is claiming 2000 acres and evicting communities living on Bunakabwa village in Kiteredde Parish, Manyogaseka Sun county; Abid Alam is claiming 17000 acres and evicting indigenous communities from over five villages of Bukompe, Kabagala, Rwamasanga, Kanyogoga and Bukoba in Naluntuntu sub county; and Samwiri Nanyeenya Bivanju is claiming 2000 acres and evicting indigenous communities from villages including Kisagala, Kisagazi and Kiwolo among others in Butoloogo sub county

Mubende Land Grabs: Over 3,000 People Occupying 3-Square Miles To Be Evicted For Commercial Goat Rearing

https://witnessradio.org/mubende-land-grabs-over-3000-people-occupying-3-square-miles-to-be-evicted-for-commercial-goat-rearing/ 

June 23, 2017

By witnessradio.org team

While two political leaders in Mubende district have made an intervention, the protracted conflict between residents and Milly Namutebi, a woman claims to be the land owner still rages.

Benny Namugwanya, the woman MP Mubende district and Joseph Kakooza, MP Buweekula, used a gathering which was attended by both residents and the ‘self-proclaimed’ landlord to stop her from carrying out land “illegal evictions” with immediate effect.

“What you are doing is illegal,” MP Kakooza told Namutebi, “you should stop these evictions immediately.

“We shall take you to court should you continue torturing our people,” Kakooza added.

SETTLED FOR DECADES

Nicosia Ssempewo, a 70-year-old man, told the gathering that he settled on the now disputed land in 1948. He owns a piece of 20 acres.

Dadidyoni Ssebaka, settled on the land in 1978, after purchasing 30 acres.

Other tenants who addressed the same gathering include; Michael Talutambude, who said that he settled on this particular land in 1977, and Koloneri Bbosa who came in 1959.

All these tenants who form just a small partial of the larger communities lived in peace on a tract spanning 3-square mile which they all considered their ancestral land with their children.

These communities are now encircled by fear after Namutebi, came recently out of the blue to claim ownership of their land.

Residents, have lost hope as the new landlord now wants them to either pay her money, enter into new agreements with her indicating that she’s renting them land, or surrender part of their land to her in case of the failure to meet her new demands.

In fact, Namutebi made it public that out the entire communities, she only recognizes 17, a statement that shocked victims more.

“They are actually squatters on the land because land doesn’t belong to them, it’s my land…and I just recognize 17 bona fide occupants,” said Namutebi.

Before the meeting that sucked in the political leaders, Namutebi had hired soldiers of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Commanded by Major Eric Kigambwoha, to destroy their crops that included, tree plantations, banana plantations, coffee plantations, among others, claiming that they had not sought for a prior “permission” from the landlord.

But in defence, Kigambwoha, claimed that one of them Daus Sunday, bought unspecified chunk of land on the disputed tract. However, some of the residents threatened him with death alongside his goats, thus seeking soldiers’ protection, he said.

LOOSING LIVELIHOOD

Like other parts of Mubende district, over 3,000 victims from 16 villages in Kirwanyi parish, Butoroogo sub-county Mubende district, used the land for farming.

So, the grab of their land means losing their livelihoods because their families cannot grow food to feed themselves, and sell to make a living.

“I have been using my land to grow food for my children and selling to earn money to look after them and paying school fees for them ever since I settled on this land,” said Bbosa.

CONTEMPT OF LEADERS’ ORDER

While leaders’ involvement offered hope to the tenants, the continued destruction of food crops by the said landlord suggests otherwise.

The weird behavior by the self-proclaimed landlord thus, raises questions on the authenticity of the claims, as she is engaged in illegal acts against the tenants.

SOME CRITICAL DETAILS ABOUT THE DISPUTED LAND

The land in dispute spans 3-square miles, comprising 16 villages and was first registered on November 1^st 1928 in the names of Zakaliya Kikonyogo.

After his death, its proprietorship went to Henry Kaaya as its administrator in 2003. But now, the title is in the names of Edith Nakabugo, Henry Kaaya, and Nicholas, which gives them ownership.

The villages that sit on this land are;

• Nakasagazi
• Kiture
• Kilwanyi
• Kibalagazi
• Kirwanyi Central
• Kibalagazi
• Kakakanembe
• Bukyamuzi
• Kisombe
• Mulanda
• Kisombe
• Mulanda

Evicted 10,000 Residents of Seven Villages Stranded as Landlord Gives Them One Week to Vacate 2 Square-mile Land

https://witnessradio.org/665-2/ 

 April 20, 2017

 It’s all grief on the faces of at least 10,000 residents of seven villages in Kamusenene Parish, Kiganda Sub-County, Mubende district after Stella Kakuba, a new landlord who is believed to have conspired with Emmanuel Ssempala, the Clerk, Mubende district land board to forge a certificate of title of the the said land.

The seven villages affected include; Lwentuwa, Kamusenene, Nkokoma, Kilerwe, Musozi, Kitayiza A and Kitayiza B.

Attending a meeting organized by Florence Beyunga, the Mubende Resident District Commissioner (RDC), worrisome evictees said that Kakuba, a woman claiming ownership of their 2 ½ square-mile land on which they have lived for 70 years now, gave them only one week within which to vacate  it or face forceful evictions.

Residents informed the RDC that Kakuba’s ownership is being doubted because the disputed land situated on Block 431 Plot 47 is a public land.

But most interestingly, available documents reveal that Kakuba’s bid to secure a title on the disputed land got successful on 17^th 10/2016 before selling it off to Francis Ndizeye on 14^th 12/2016, hardly two months after the latter got the title.

Residents, say that they don’t know both the strangers claiming to be true owners of the land despite their long stay on it.

The evictees therefore, pleaded with the RDC to reach out to district leadership so as to cancel the said certificate of title on their land which the false claimants trade as a proof of ownership.

In response, the RDC comforted the residents, assuring them that she is going to do everything within her means to see that title canceled because it’s illegal for a person who doesn’t own even a plot of land to be given a title.

On his part, Ssempala, the man whom residents accused of conniving with the land grabbers, acknowledged wrong doing, but blaming the mess on the district political leadership which accepted to offer the land grabber a certificate of title thus asserting that the title that the grabbers hold would be cancelled soon.

Report by Kimazi Experito

Editing by Deo Walusimbi