📷 IGG says probing land commission over alleged fraudulent payments

KAMPALA - Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya has launched investigations into the alleged payment of huge sums of money for ghost land by officials of the Uganda Land Commission (ULC).

The development follows complaints and concerns that billions are being paid to non-existent beneficiaries for ghost land under the Land Fund. 

Andrew Nyumba, Secretary Uganda Land Commission during an interview in his office after the IGG launched investigations into ghost payment of land under the Land Fund on January 30, 2025. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

Mariam Nassanga (R), a senior records officer with the Uganda Land Commission, reading information from her computer as an investigator from the Inspectorate of Government queries some files. The IG launched investigations into alleged ghost payment of land under the Land Fund on January 30, 2025. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

“We have been hearing of ghost payments in other departments like the Police and the civil service, but we have discovered new ghosts in the land commission,” Kamya says.
  
Officials from the Inspectorate of Government on January 30, 2025, morning stormed the ULC offices at the Nakawa Business Park along Port Bell Road in Kampala where they searched several offices and retrieved physical files.

They also searched through computers and laptops and asked for external hard disks, among other sources of information.  

IGG officials go through files at the Uganda Land Commission offices on Thursday, January 30, 2025, in Kampala. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

Syndicate deals

Kamya said their investigations are following whistleblowers’ reports and insider tips that several officers were cheating landlords who claim compensation after negotiating with the Government to sell their land, which was given to squatters. 

However, according to Kamya, instead of paying the claimants, the officials allegedly connive with land brokers who pretend to help them and instead take the lion’s share.

It is said that claimants, who are often elderly, have found it difficult to access payment until they accept to work with brokers, who persuade them to open joint accounts in banks with their money.

Joseph Eseru (L), a senior accountant, attends to investigators from the IGG's office. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

Kamya said that it was discovered that out of about five signatories, four are brokers, who are not well known to the true claimants, who process and withdraw their money.

“We have been told that whoever refuses to collaborate with the brokers does not receive any payments for years. This means brokers have taken over the management of affairs at ULC,” Kamya states.

The investigators targeted mainly operational offices including the office of the secretary to the commission, occupied by Andrew Nyumba, that of the Senior Accountant occupied by Joseph Eseru, and the land registry where they searched the office occupied by senior records officer Mariam Nassanga. Other targets were the land management office, paying officers, verification and valuations officers and ‘digging into government payments for ghost land’.

An official of the land commission (L) attends to an investigator in his office. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

Mariam Nassanga, a senior records officer attends to an investigator from the IGG's office. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

“We have enough information to necessitate us to launch this investigation, we expect to take two months and we will publicise the preliminary report,” she explained, adding that complaints were coming from all over the country.

Nyumba told journalists in his office in the presence of the officials that the Inspectorate was investigating their operations to ‘see how we can execute our mandate’.

“They are here to look at our operations in terms of managing leases, management of compensation of landowners whose land was occupied by squatters, and any other issue that they may want to investigate. It is largely operations on how the commission is conducting its work," he said.