Parliament summons Amongi over land titles

Aug 01, 2019

This is after Kassanda North MP Patrick Nsamba Oshabe complains that some fraudulent landlords harass tenants and threaten them with eviction in his constituency.

LAND

KAMPALA - The Parliament has summoned the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Betty Amongi to explain the progress of computerization of land titles.

This was after Kassanda North MP Patrick Nsamba Oshabe complained that some fraudulent landlords are harassing tenants and threatening them with eviction in his constituency.

Nsamba informed the House chaired by Jacob Oulanyah that the residents cannot verify the titles since they were withdrawn from the District Land Office and taken to Kampala for verification.

"We have experienced land grabbing and evictions in Kassanda. I have a landlord who has put his tenants on notice. We would run to the land office for verification but as it is, the titles were withdrawn and sent to Kampala for computerization making it hard to verify land in Mityana," he said.

Nsamba added that land grabbers have used this opportunity to present land titles whose ownership the residents have difficulty verifying.

 "Let the Minister bring a statement explaining the process of computerization; do you still need a hard copy, or the computerized copy would be enough to tell the rightful owner?" Oulanyah inquired.

Oulanyah added that there is a need for information on how many districts had completed the process.

The Minister was not in the House but the Government Chief Whip, Ruth Nankabirwa, said she would forward the matter to the Lands Minister for action.

Early this year, the Ministry directed that all land titles from districts be transferred for conversion into digital copies as part of the Land ministry's computerized Land Information System (LIS).

The exercise aimed at minimizing land-related conflicts in the country, forgery of land titles and the red-tape in searching for land information among others.

 

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