Kibaale Landlords To Be Paid â€" Isoke

THE Government has set aside unspecified amount of money to compensate the Kibaale absentee landlords, in a bid to bring an end to almost a century-long dispute between Banyoro squatters and the Baganda land owners, reports John Eremu.Lands state minister Baguma Isoke told journalists yesterday that the land fund and the district land tribunals provided for in the 1998 Land Act had been operationalised.The land fund is used by the Government to acquire land for persons displaced by government projects. It can also be used to buy land for people displaced by natural calamities and resolving historical injustices as is the case with Kibaale.Isoke said at the weekly ministerial press briefing yesterday that survivors of the absentee landlords willing to dispose of the estates should submit certified copies of the titles to the Uganda Land Commission Secretary for verification.The Uganda Land Commission chairman, Prince Besweri Mulondo, said in a statement that the compensation would first be done on a pilot basis beginning with Bwanswa, the former Sabagabo parish and Kakumiro township, all in Bugangaizi county.The other pilot areas are Kyanaisoke, former Mutuba I; Mabale (formerly Mutuba II), Bwaniramira (formerly Sabagabo and Kibaale Town Council), all in Buyaga county. Large tracks of land totalling 2,470sq. km was in 1926 grabbed by the British from Bunyoro kingdom and given to the Baganda allies who helped the colonial power defeat King Kabalega of Bunyoro. The area constitutes 60% of Kibaale district and comprises Buyaga and Bugangaizi, later referred to as the ‘lost counties’ and reverted to Bunyoro following a referendum in 1964.Ends