Two-armed private security guards and three other people have been arrested over malicious damage in a land wrangle in Kassanda district.

The suspects were arrested over the weekend over alleged massive destruction of property at Kyakasengula village in Nalutuntu Sub County, Kassanda district.

“They brought the graders to the village earlier, but we did not know why. We were then surprised to see a group of people, guarded by armed men as they went to destroy our gardens,” Eriphaz Kato, the village LC1 chairperson, said.

"Acres of crops, trees and other properties were destroyed before the local leaders called for the Police to intervene. We tried to appeal to them to stop, but they were so rough and in the process, two women fainted as they saw their crops being destroyed,” Kato added.

A mother stranded with her baby in her garden where crops were destroyed

The land is said to belong to Nteza, who is reported to have negotiated with a few squatters with whom he shared part of the land and gave them land titles. However, the rest of the squatters were not informed of the developments.

Benedicto Yiga, one of the residents, said many of the squatters had in the past years been paying ground rent, however, in the past two years, the landlord rejected the money.

Following this, the district security committee visited the village to establish what had happened.

District Police commander Robert Tashobya on Sunday said they had arrested the people involved including the armed private security guards but were still looking for their boss.

Kassanda Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Faridah Bbosa said Nteza had at the beginning of the week written to them asking for permission to develop his land.

“We told him to wait until we reply to him after establishing the facts about this land and so we came to see what is here. As we returned, we gave him up to Wednesday next week to respond to him but we were surprised to see this,” Bbosa said.

On Monday, the district team is expected to send valuers to establish the loss of each resident as the investigations go on.