WAKISO | LAND | FRAUD

Estate developers in Wakiso District have decried the level to which land projects are being frustrated by bibanja fraudsters. 

Dr. Anatoli Kamugisha, the developer of Akright Projects Limited, said fraudsters sometimes connive with the police and other law enforcers to defraud land owners. 

Kamugisha was speaking in Entebbe on the sidelines of a court case hearing in which Charles Kyagaba, a suspected land grabber, was seeking bail in the Entebbe Chief Magistrates Court.

Kyagaba, who was seeking bail, was met by angry residents at the court premises holding placards requesting that he not be released. In April last year, Kyagaba and three others were arrested after they allegedly demolished a house belonging to an elderly woman, claiming she had built the house on his land.

On the court premises, Kamugisha said when one has a good project that they want to put up or any other investments, they get frustrated by purported bibanja fraudsters.

"Some people have been utilizing loopholes in the law to grab land." Fraudsters invade land, plant old matooke, and erect small structures there, claiming it is their kibanja. "Others reach the extent of building fake graves to claim they buried their ancestors there," he explained.

Anatoli Kamugisha, the developer of Akright Projects Limited interacting with other officials

Similar tricks were invoked by one John Muzungu, who was an ardent land-grabber in areas of Katabi town council, Wakiso district, and used to "plant" some old people on the land whose owners could have moved out of the country for employment. grazer

In 2019, John Muzungu was found guilty on charges of malicious damage and grievous harm, all related to land grabbing, before he was sentenced to several years in prison pending a civil case.

Dr. Kamugisha lauded President Museveni for his good leadership and for deploying the anti-corruption unit of the state house, which has successfully managed to catch and bring to book most of the purported land grabbers.