Court orders Masaka businessman off forest reserve

By Patrick Jaramogi

A businessman in Masaka has lost 98 hectares of land after court ruled that the land he had owned for 29 years was part of the Mujuzi Central Forest Reserve.

Mugerwa Evaristo Kafeero fell in his own trap after he dragged the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to court seeking to restrain it from throwing him out of the land. NFA had restrained Kafeero from using the land in 2007 prompting him to go to court.

Kafeero sued NFA asking court that the land comprising LRV 1370 Folio 19, Budu Block 783 plot 11 measuring 98.71 hectares at Byante, Kitunga, Kyanamukaka, Masaka district was not a gazetted forest reserve at the time it was leased to him.

He also wanted a permanent injunction restraining NFA from evicting him from the suit land along with general damages, for trespass and costs of the suit.

But in a landmark ruling made by retired High Court Judge Justice V.F Musoke Kibuuka on November 28 2014, Kibuuka ruled that the suit property is part of the Mujuzi Central Forest Reserve which was first surveyed in 1914 and first gazetted by legal notice No.38 of 1938.

“Mujuzi Central Forest Reserve having been first gazetted in 1938, no person could in 1984 obtain and hold a title over a part of it. Accordingly, the title obtained by the plaintiff on block 783, plot 11, was obtained illegally and certificate of title issued to the plaintiff is null and void,” ruled Kibuuka in the civil suit No. 005 of 2008.

The retired judge also ruled that the registration of the plaintiff as proprietor of Buddu Block 783, Plot 11, was effected in error as the land was not available for leasing. Justice Kibuuka Musoke issued an eviction ordered to Kafeero to leave the forest reserve in 14 days from the day of judgment.

“I issue an order that the plaintiff hands over the owners copy of the certificate of title held by him to the Commissioner for Land Registration for cancellation,” said Kibuuka.

The NFA legal team led by legal manager Ruth Kisakye and Joseph Kwesiga welcomed the Judges’ ruling which restrained the plaintiff, his agents, employees or successors from treating any part of Mujuzi Central Forest Reserve as belonging to him and from carrying out there-on any activity prohibited by law.

“This ruling should act as an indicator that time is up for those who use their offices to obtain gazetted forest reserve for their own selfish motives,” said Kisakye.

Kwesiga noted that court had observed that Kafeero while a surveyor in Masaka issued instructions to survey the land under N0.U0903, carried out the survey himself and signed the deed plans.

Kwesiga said Kafeero a retired surveyor who served in Masaka district prior to retiring obtained the land which is part of the Mujuzi Central Reserve on February 22 1985. “He served as Senior Staff surveyor for Masaka from 1981- 1985. Much as Kafeero said when he obtained the land in 1985 it was not yet gazetted, NFA produced documents indicating that the forest was actually gazetted in 1914,” he said.

NFA contends that under the Forest Act, Cap 246 no person has any right to lawfully obtain or hold a valid title of a forest reserve. “We are compiling our costs of the suit as ordered by court now that we are ready to carry out evictions,” said Kwesiga.