Over 10,000 in Kikuube miss out on land title certification

KIKUUBE - Over 10,000 families from Buhimba Town Council, Kiziranfumbi, Kyangwali, Kabwoya, and Bugambe sub-counties in Kikuube district will miss the Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAC) exercise after surveyors discovered that they are squatting on already titled land.

In August, the government, through the Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, contracted MESCIOGLU Engineering Company Limited, a Turkish company, to undertake land surveying and registration in various sub-counties in Kikuube district.

The intention was to avail 20,000 land titles at a reduced cost to combat the escalating land-grabbing cases in the district.

However, locals say that, to their dismay, the surveyors discovered that they are squatting on already titled land.

Monica Asiimwe and Paul Kahwa, residents of Buhimba East cell in Buhimba sub-county, say that when the surveyors came to their villages, they found that over 70 families are settled on land already titled by JB Zakanya, whom they don’t know.

"We are not sleeping peacefully after the surveyors told us that we are not going to benefit from SLAC when they discovered that our land was already titled by a person we don't know and we have never seen in our village. We request the minister for lands to cancel this land title," Monica said.

One of the contested land titles in Bwera, Kyangwali. (Credit: Ambrose Niwagaba Katoto)

Desire Murenzi, the LC1 chairperson for Nyairongo village in Kabwoya sub-county, says that over 13 land titles have been discovered in his village, affecting more than 2,000 families.

They have therefore asked the Ministry of Lands to cancel these land titles to help the locals benefit from the government program.

"Many of my people are poor, they cannot contest these illegal land titles in court and those who illegally obtained them are targeting land fund money from the government, therefore we request government to cancel these land titles," Desire said.

During a meeting with the State Minister for Lands at the office of the RDC in Kiziranfumbi on Tuesday, Amlan Tumusiime, the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner, accused the lead surveyor, Joyce Ngonze Habaasa, of being among the people who titled land occupied by thousands of families in Bwera, Kyangwali.

During a meeting with the State Minister for Lands at the RDC's office in Kiziranfumbi on December 24, 2024, Amlan Tumusiime, the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner, alleged that the lead surveyor, Joyce Ngonze Habaasa, was involved in titling land already occupied by thousands of families in Bwera, Kyangwali.

"Honourable Minister, the person we gave the contract to survey the land in the whole Kikuube, when she was a surveyor in Hoima district, she obtained three land titles in her names, her husband, and her son. So all those residents in Bwera are not going to benefit from this program," Amlan reported.

However, Ngonze denied the allegations, saying that she obtained the land title in 2001 before the land was occupied by the said people.

While quoting Section 59, subsection 1A, of the 1995 Constitution, Sam Mayanja, the State Minister of Lands, explained that they are going to investigate. If the district land board illegally offered the transaction of the land titles, they will be cancelled.

"Where a board enters into or undertakes or concludes any such transactions or allocates land in contravention of subsection 1A as amended, that transaction shall be void," Mayanja said.

Land grabbing and evictions in the Bunyoro sub-region have become rampant ever since the discovery of oil and gas, with many speculators and grabbers invading the region.