Col. Jet Mwebabze's widow battles squatters

A three year old land wrangle in Luweero that pits a landlady against a group of squatters has taken a new twist with the landlady employing armed policemen to provide protection while she constructs her house.

Florence Naggayi, a widow to the late UPDF Col.Jet Mwebaze, says she fears to be attacked by squatters who have put up stiff resistance against claims over the 50 hectares of land at Kicwampa-Mputte village in Bamunanika.

Naggayi, who is mother to the late Mwebaze's eldest daughter Lilian Kisakye Mbabazi, claims to have shared the land from the estate of her daughter's late father, Jet Mwebaze who died in a 1998 plane crash in Kasese.

According to a copy of late Mwebaze's  will which Naggayi wields, the deceased had a total of 154 hectares of land at Kicwampa-Mputte village, out of which 50 hectares went to Naggayi, 50 to Naggayi's daughter Lilian Mbabazi and another 50 to UPDF causalities.

The will reads in part: "50 hectares of my land at Kicwampa -Mputte should go to the mother of Lilian Kisakye." .It further reads:" 50 hectares should be given to my daughter Lillian Kisakye. This is her property."

Naggayi, who is constructing a simple one-roomed house on the land, said she had received a lot of resistance from the squatters who wrongly believe that she wants to evict them.

She said her detractors looted an entire 5 hectares of maize which she planted last season, tried to demolish her semi-completed house and pelted workers with stones who were at the construction site.

Before going to the site on Thursday last Week, Naggayi picked four armed policemen from Sekamuli police post in Bamunanika who escorted her to the site and kept watch as the construction proceeded.

 The embattled widow said she was determined to settle and on the land and develop it despite the stiff resistance from the tenants.

Luweero Deputy RDC, Hussein Kibazo said the wrangle between Naggayi and the tenants has been going on for the last three years. Kibazo said he had invited the two parties to enable them reach a compromise.