Museveni speaks out on the 9,000 square miles

Aug 25, 2012

President Yoweri Museveni has explained that Government does not have the 9,000 square miles demanded by Mengo Government.

By Joyce Namutebi

President Yoweri Museveni has explained that Government does not have the 9,000 square miles demanded by Mengo Government.

"We informed the country that this akenda was settled by some of its indigenous owners and others who had subsequently joined them and any balance was being managed by district land boards," Museveni said.

He said that when the regional tiers are operationalized, the regional land boards could share responsibility with the district land boards.

This was in a 12-page response given to Buganda Parliamentary Caucus leaders led by their chairperson, Godfrey Kiwanda during a meeting at State House, Entebbe on Thursday.

In the response he outlined areas where the Government has disagreed with Buganda, whose seat is Bulange in Mengo.

He said there was a lot of propaganda and lies regarding the 9,000 square miles with Mengo making it appear that human beings (landlords and bibanja holders) only lived on 8,000 square miles of land (akanaana) given to the collaborators in 1900 and that on the akenda, there were no human beings.

"This akenda had become Crown land after the collaborators had helped Britain to take over Uganda. After independence it became public land. There were, of course indigenous human beings on this Crown (public) land before colonialism and more people came on this land during and after colonialism," Museveni explained.

On federo, he said Mengo wanted all the powers devolved from Central government to be veted in Mengo, but the government could not accept this "because for somebody in Buwekula it makes no difference whether the service delivery is at Parliament Building or Bulange" he explained.

He noted that since the decentralization exercise, there has been phenomenal growth in service delivery in all areas of Uganda. "Our solution was that much of the power should be at the district so that the local people can solve their problem but some of the powers that had remained at the Central government can be managed by the Regional Government where the people so wish."

On Buganda's demand for masaza lands, Museveni said that when the Regional Tier is formed, those lands will go back to that regional tier. "That is the legal position. However, since I am always looking for ways of helping these institutions, I formed the view that I could return these centres to Mengo as a way of supporting the cultural institution and when the regional tier is formed, we can always create new centres of administration."

He pointed out that the other difference with Mengo was their desire to tax people at the same time as the central government, on taxes. "Our argument is that there should be mainly consumer taxes, which are voluntary taxes, to be paid by those who buy consumer items such as sodas, beers, perfumes, etc imposed by the Central Government," he said.

Multiple taxes, he explained, raise costs of doing business in the economy and therefore undermine growth.

The President said Mengo was then taken over by landlords who used that centre to demand the right to evict bibanja holders at will and the right to charge unlimited busuulu. Museveni, who gave a historical perspective to the issue of busuulu noted that government has now criminalised land evictions although the evictions are still going on because of the ignorance of the peasants and the collusion of local leaders.
 

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