UPC backs Buganda land claim

Mar 05, 2008

THE Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) has asked the Government to return 9,000sq miles of land to Buganda kingdom.

By Moses Mulondo

THE Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) has asked the Government to return 9,000sq miles of land to Buganda kingdom.

The Government said the public land the kingdom was demanding was only 5,949sq miles, which was vested in the district land boards.

In 1962, the British colonial government placed the control of the contested land under the Buganda Land Board on behalf of the kingdom but it was later confiscated by UPC government in 1967.

“When Buganda kingdom ceased to exist our government took over that land. Now that the Mengo institution is re-established, all that belongs to it should be returned,” UPC president Miria Kalule Obote told journalists yesterday.
Miria said her party would continue to support Buganda’s struggle to regain its land.

“I wish to inform Ugandans that although UPC had taken over the land, it did not go ahead to distribute it to individuals as this government has been unfairly doing. That land is still there and it should be given back to Mengo to avoid future problems.”

President Museveni on Monday said the Buganda claim of 9,000sq. miles of land was based on a myth.

The Attorney General is expected to deliver a statement to Parliament today over the issue.

Miria also said her party was opposed to the Land Bill. She denounced pronouncements by the President that he would decampaign NRM legislators oppose the Bill.

“The prime responsibility of an MP is to represent, promote and defend the interests of his or her constituency,” she said.

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