State House intervenes in land wrangle

May 27, 2009

THE directors of MECHAKA Investment, a money lending group in Mbarara town, have been stopped from occupying a piece of land belonging to Edward Kasibante.

By Fred Turyakira

THE directors of MECHAKA Investment, a money lending group in Mbarara town, have been stopped from occupying a piece of land belonging to Edward Kasibante.

Kasibante petitioned the directorate of land matters in the State House after the two directors, Enos Mukunde and Arthur Tihabweitu, grabbed his land on Plot 2-4 at Kiswahili Road in Kakoba division.

Kasibante said Mukunde and Tihabweitu recently went to his land with armed men and tried to force him out of his house, claiming they bought it from his brother, Collins Twinomujuni.

The two directors destroyed Kasibante’s banana plantation, fenced off the land and deployed armed men there before they started constructing a house.

Kasibante and his group demolished the house and Kasibante was arrested by the Police for trespass.

Twinomujuni said he mortgaged his brother’s land and acquired a loan of sh4m from MECHAKA in February 2009.

He added that the directors convinced him to sign an agreement selling the land at sh33m as security in case he failed to pay back their money.

Twinomujuni said he had started paying back the loan, but he was surprised when Mukunde and Tihabweitu claimed they had bought the land.

On Saturday, Edward Ochieng, a State House assistant private secretary, met with the residents of Kiswahili and MECHAKA directors over the land.

Ochieng asked Twinomujuni to produce the loan payment documents in seven days to help with the investigations.

He told all parties to stop using the land, saying the owner of the land shall be determined after investigations.

Ochieng said he would ask the Police in Mbarara to release Kasibante. on bond and withdraw the armed security guards from the disputed land.

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