Mutukula mayor petitions State House over Sango Bay land

By Simon Peter Tumwine

MUTUKULA - Mutukula town council mayor David Mujaasi has petitioned State House over the eviction of over 3,000 residents in Sango Bay, Kyotera district. 

Mujaasi wrote to Brig. Gen. Moses Lukyamuzi, the head of the presidential special task force on land matters and the environment, to seek his intervention in the Sango Bay land question. 

In his letter dated February 14, 2025, Mujaasi decried what he described as forceful eviction of residents from the land and improper arrests, which he said are in total abuse of the presidential directive on land. 

The land in question sits on four sub-counties: Kakuto, Kyebe, Kasasa and Kabila, and a small part of it is in Mutukula town council. 

In March 2021, President Yoweri Museveni allocated 22,028ha of the 65,000ha Sango Bay land to Bukoola estates and Bidco Uganda Limited for growing oil palm. 

Consequently, the President ordered the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) in a letter dated March 11, 2021, to ensure that the two companies share the land equally. 

However, Mujaasi said the implementers of the presidential directive were allegedly misusing it to forcibly evict people not sitting on the land allocated to the two companies. 

“On several occasions, Police officers under the command of Commissioner of Police Godfrey Maate Bolingo, with the supervision of the Kyotera resident district commissioner on instructions of Ignatius Tumwesiga who claims to be a relative of the President, have raided our homes and destroyed our properties, purporting to implement the presidential directive,” Mujaasi said. 

However, all the accused persons have denied orchestrating the illegal evictions. 

The mayor asked Brig. Gen. Lukyamuzi to halt all activities on the land pending verification of boundaries and compensation of affected persons. 

He also requested ULC to re-demarcate the land to know the actual land allocated to the two companies (Bukoola and Bidco). 

When contacted, the Kyotera district Police commander, Justus Namara, said he was unaware of illegal evictions on the land. 

Recently, internal affairs minister Maj. Gen. (rtd) Kahinda Otafiire ordered Police officers handling the land dispute to follow the law, saying those who will get involved in the matter will end up in prison.

Domestic tourism 

The local leaders protested the cancellation of land titles comprised in blocks 888 and 889, plots 76 and 106 respectively in the name of Kyotera district local government. 

Yusuf Kanyeihamba, a resident at Block 889 in Mutukula, revealed that his 120 head of cattle were confiscated by security personnel, adding that when he contacted the Police about his eviction and confiscation of his animals, they turned a deaf ear. 

He appealed to President Museveni to intervene. “All our valley dams from where our cows drink water have been destroyed. This is domestic terrorism,” Kanyeihamba said.