Tenants VS Landlord: Strife in the VP’s Backyard
Aug 19, 2009
IN the midst of over 200 people, 81-year-old Nzera Weekembe sits in the dust, tears running down her cheeks.
BY FRANCIS KAGOLO
IN the midst of over 200 people, 81-year-old Nzera Weekembe sits in the dust, tears running down her cheeks.
As the village meeting starts, she staggers in search for stones to sit on.
Weekembe is incensed at the man trying to evict them from the land on which she has been all her life.
“My grandparents lived here. I stay with my children and 11 grandchildren. I am a widow. Where does this man want me to go?†she asks.
Three hundred other families are facing eviction in this village which is about five kilometreas off Hoima Road in Kakiri. The majority of residents depend on agriculture for survival.
Weekembe accuses Justus Katesigwa, a Kampala businessman, of trying to “grab†their land.
Recently, the residents of Mpeggwe Village almost lynched Katesigwa, Teddy Nantongo and Joyce Turyahikayo, two aides to the vice-president, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, when they attended the village meeting.
In May, Katesigwa deployed about 30 armed soldiers in Mpeggwe.
“The soldiers declared a curfew on the village. They beat and arrested whoever crossed their boundaries,†residents told Bukenya.
It took Bukenya’s intervention for the residents to be released. But when they met Bukenya, who is also the area MP, the residents accused him of inadequate support.
Bukenya promised to help the residents who vowed they are ready to die on that land.
He urged them to go back to their gardens and dig, but Katesigwa also vows to continue with his mission because he wants to set up a goat farm.
Who owns the land?
Tracing the rightful owner of the land is complicated. Residents say the land belongs to the Buganda kingdom and that Katesigwa acquired it illegally.
“It belonged to the Nankere sect of the Mamba (lung fish) clan. We got it after the 1900 (Buganda) Agreement,†says Francis Balwana, a clan elder.
Explaining why they do not have a land title, Balwana says successive leaders of the Nankere sect, known as Kasolo, always inherited the land and changed the title into their names.
However, when Musa Sserukwaya died in 1961, his successor, Erieza Wangubo, did not change the title.
Balwana says Wangubo’s caretaker, one Kiyimba, kept the land title under the custody of Mpungu Advocates, a law firm that was based along Nkrumah Road in Kampala, in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, the firm closed before they got back the title.
On the contrary, Katesigwa says he bought the 561-acre land at sh5m from the Non-Performing Assets Recovery Trust in 2003.
The trust was a statutory body charged with recovering loans and investments made by the Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB).
It is alleged that the title was mortgaged to UCB by one Joseph Lwanga in 1990. From Lwanga, it was transfered into Katesigwa’s names.
However, residents claim they have never known anyone called Joseph Lwanga.
Besides, they add, documents do not indicate how much money Lwanga borrowed from UCB to mortgage the title. “If the lawyer did not mortgage the title himself, then there is foul play,†says Jackson Kikonyogo, the current leader of the clan.
Meanwhile, Buganda Kingdom’s deputy spokesperson, Medard Sseggona, says the kingdom will investigate whether the disputed land once belonged to the mamba clan.
Mpeggwe is one of the most recent among a multitude of land woes that have engulfed the country since the 1990s. The land-grabbing crisis has been growing since last year and has extended to different parts of the country like Kibaale.
The Land Amendment Bill (2007), which the Government said would avert illegal evictions in the country, was opposed by many stakeholders and shelved. In Mpeggwe, court is the only hope left.
IN the midst of over 200 people, 81-year-old Nzera Weekembe sits in the dust, tears running down her cheeks.
As the village meeting starts, she staggers in search for stones to sit on.
Weekembe is incensed at the man trying to evict them from the land on which she has been all her life.
“My grandparents lived here. I stay with my children and 11 grandchildren. I am a widow. Where does this man want me to go?†she asks.
Three hundred other families are facing eviction in this village which is about five kilometreas off Hoima Road in Kakiri. The majority of residents depend on agriculture for survival.
Weekembe accuses Justus Katesigwa, a Kampala businessman, of trying to “grab†their land.
Recently, the residents of Mpeggwe Village almost lynched Katesigwa, Teddy Nantongo and Joyce Turyahikayo, two aides to the vice-president, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, when they attended the village meeting.
In May, Katesigwa deployed about 30 armed soldiers in Mpeggwe.
“The soldiers declared a curfew on the village. They beat and arrested whoever crossed their boundaries,†residents told Bukenya.
It took Bukenya’s intervention for the residents to be released. But when they met Bukenya, who is also the area MP, the residents accused him of inadequate support.
Bukenya promised to help the residents who vowed they are ready to die on that land.
He urged them to go back to their gardens and dig, but Katesigwa also vows to continue with his mission because he wants to set up a goat farm.
Who owns the land?
Tracing the rightful owner of the land is complicated. Residents say the land belongs to the Buganda kingdom and that Katesigwa acquired it illegally.
“It belonged to the Nankere sect of the Mamba (lung fish) clan. We got it after the 1900 (Buganda) Agreement,†says Francis Balwana, a clan elder.
Explaining why they do not have a land title, Balwana says successive leaders of the Nankere sect, known as Kasolo, always inherited the land and changed the title into their names.
However, when Musa Sserukwaya died in 1961, his successor, Erieza Wangubo, did not change the title.
Balwana says Wangubo’s caretaker, one Kiyimba, kept the land title under the custody of Mpungu Advocates, a law firm that was based along Nkrumah Road in Kampala, in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, the firm closed before they got back the title.
On the contrary, Katesigwa says he bought the 561-acre land at sh5m from the Non-Performing Assets Recovery Trust in 2003.
The trust was a statutory body charged with recovering loans and investments made by the Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB).
It is alleged that the title was mortgaged to UCB by one Joseph Lwanga in 1990. From Lwanga, it was transfered into Katesigwa’s names.
However, residents claim they have never known anyone called Joseph Lwanga.
Besides, they add, documents do not indicate how much money Lwanga borrowed from UCB to mortgage the title. “If the lawyer did not mortgage the title himself, then there is foul play,†says Jackson Kikonyogo, the current leader of the clan.
Meanwhile, Buganda Kingdom’s deputy spokesperson, Medard Sseggona, says the kingdom will investigate whether the disputed land once belonged to the mamba clan.
Mpeggwe is one of the most recent among a multitude of land woes that have engulfed the country since the 1990s. The land-grabbing crisis has been growing since last year and has extended to different parts of the country like Kibaale.
The Land Amendment Bill (2007), which the Government said would avert illegal evictions in the country, was opposed by many stakeholders and shelved. In Mpeggwe, court is the only hope left.