A 4:00am escape from a landlords wrath
Jul 23, 2008
TWELVE-year-old John Bakabulindi a pupil in P.4 at Kennedy Primary School, Namulanda Wakiso district, was recently caught in a scuffle for land that left him traumatised. According to the Police, the incident left three houses demolished, property destroyed and families homeless.
By Gladys Kalibbala
TWELVE-year-old John Bakabulindi a pupil in P.4 at Kennedy Primary School, Namulanda Wakiso district, was recently caught in a scuffle for land that left him traumatised.
After struggling through the debris as people demolished their home, Bakabulindi managed to flee to his father’s bedroom. At first, dust from a broken wall woke Bakabulindi up at about 4:00am on the fateful Sunday night.
He thought he was dreaming until the ceiling of his bedroom fell in, trapping him at a corner in his bedroom and waking him fully.
He says the noise that followed was so loud that he screamed for help from his father John Ddamulira.
“As my father tried to reach for me, the window of his bedroom fell in throwing dust that partially blinded me. I saw him running through the opening where the window had been, leaving me behind,†he says.
Bakabulindi ran from his father’s bedroom to the sitting room through a hole which had been made in one corner of the room. “I realised the whole house had been surrounded and decided to use the only chance I had. I thank God my sisters were at school, otherwise, they would have been killed in the house as they would not have fitted in the holes my father and I used to escape,†Bakabulindi says.
The boy narrates how, before vanishing to a neighbours home, he saw men collecting his clothes and those of his father and putting them in a big polythene bag. Bakabulindi suspects the men would have raped his sisters if they had found them in the house.
“What would you expect after my father and I had run away and mum was also not in the house?†he wonders.
According to the Police, the incident left three houses demolished, property destroyed and families homeless.
Ddamulira, 46, a carpenter with the Civil Aviation Authority, whose two houses were demolished, narrated how the unfortunate incident made him abandon his son.
“The men surrounded the house and I recalled that the owner of the land had ever threatened my life so I rushed out immediately,†he explains.
He says even after running out, one of the over 30 men who invaded his house ran after him. The man used a torch to trace Ddamulira but never found him. Ddamulira ran to a friend, Wilson Musisi’s home where his son later found him.
Ddamulira says he bought the land at sh2.5m from Vena Nakyanzi, 88, in 1995.
When he started building in early 2000, someone who identified himself as Capt. Kibuuka Mukasa, approached him and stopped him from continuing with the construction, claiming he was trespassing on his land.
Ddamulira says he demanded compensation from the man but he referred him to Nakyanzi. Nakyanzi did not have the money to refund to Ddamulira. She says she bought the land from Mumbejja Nabisuubi some 70 years ago when she was still a young girl.
Ddamulira took the case to Nakawa court but the case was thrown out of court. When he suggested out-of-court settlement with Mukasa, he disappeared and was never heard of until February 9, 2008. “I had invested a lot in the land when Mukasa disappeared, I decided to complete my house and wait for him for negotiations. I could not just move away without a single cent,†Ddamulira, who was limping, explains.
He says he had already sold another place in Bugonga in Entebbe Municipality and had no money to buy another plot.
Aloysius Gonzaga, Nakyanzi’s son, also lost a house and property which were destroyed by falling debris. He says they survived narrowly with his wife Oliver Namukwaya and their three children.
The deputy Police commander for Entebbe, Hilary Kulaige, condemned the act and said the Police are looking for Mukasa to answer charges of malicious damage. “Whether he is an army man or not, the law must be observed. People could have lost their lives that night.†By press time, attempts to trace Mukasa had proved futile as information showed he was in Mbarara.
Kulaige says Sewannyana, a resident of Wakiso, was arrested in connection with the case and detained at Entebbe Police together with two others.
The incident left the old woman Nakyanzi in a state of mental distress as she was found talking to herself while throwing her arms in the air. “Over my dead body. No one will take my land when I am still alive,†she vowed.
Nakyanzi said she left Bwerenga village in Wakiso district when she was a young girl and started doing business in Namulanda.
She says she bought the land from Mumbejja Nabisuubi, who complained that it was not fertile enough for cultivation. Nakyanzi’s daughter Ularia Nabukalu, 58, is worried the incident may affect her mother’s mental health.
“My mother had lost her sanity eight years ago but she had improved,†Nabukalu says.
Nabukalu says the land belongs to her mother. The LC1 chairman for Namulanda, Matiya Mukwaya condemned the inhuman act.
He said Mukasa bought three acres of land from the late Nakumusana in 1980, according to the papers he presented to the village executive.
Mukwaya says Mukasa claims Ddamulira, Gonzaga, Nakyanzi and part of Kennedy Primary School are occupying his land illegally and should vacate it to allow him develop it.
TWELVE-year-old John Bakabulindi a pupil in P.4 at Kennedy Primary School, Namulanda Wakiso district, was recently caught in a scuffle for land that left him traumatised.
After struggling through the debris as people demolished their home, Bakabulindi managed to flee to his father’s bedroom. At first, dust from a broken wall woke Bakabulindi up at about 4:00am on the fateful Sunday night.
He thought he was dreaming until the ceiling of his bedroom fell in, trapping him at a corner in his bedroom and waking him fully.
He says the noise that followed was so loud that he screamed for help from his father John Ddamulira.
“As my father tried to reach for me, the window of his bedroom fell in throwing dust that partially blinded me. I saw him running through the opening where the window had been, leaving me behind,†he says.
Bakabulindi ran from his father’s bedroom to the sitting room through a hole which had been made in one corner of the room. “I realised the whole house had been surrounded and decided to use the only chance I had. I thank God my sisters were at school, otherwise, they would have been killed in the house as they would not have fitted in the holes my father and I used to escape,†Bakabulindi says.
The boy narrates how, before vanishing to a neighbours home, he saw men collecting his clothes and those of his father and putting them in a big polythene bag. Bakabulindi suspects the men would have raped his sisters if they had found them in the house.
“What would you expect after my father and I had run away and mum was also not in the house?†he wonders.
According to the Police, the incident left three houses demolished, property destroyed and families homeless.
Ddamulira, 46, a carpenter with the Civil Aviation Authority, whose two houses were demolished, narrated how the unfortunate incident made him abandon his son.
“The men surrounded the house and I recalled that the owner of the land had ever threatened my life so I rushed out immediately,†he explains.
He says even after running out, one of the over 30 men who invaded his house ran after him. The man used a torch to trace Ddamulira but never found him. Ddamulira ran to a friend, Wilson Musisi’s home where his son later found him.
Ddamulira says he bought the land at sh2.5m from Vena Nakyanzi, 88, in 1995.
When he started building in early 2000, someone who identified himself as Capt. Kibuuka Mukasa, approached him and stopped him from continuing with the construction, claiming he was trespassing on his land.
Ddamulira says he demanded compensation from the man but he referred him to Nakyanzi. Nakyanzi did not have the money to refund to Ddamulira. She says she bought the land from Mumbejja Nabisuubi some 70 years ago when she was still a young girl.
Ddamulira took the case to Nakawa court but the case was thrown out of court. When he suggested out-of-court settlement with Mukasa, he disappeared and was never heard of until February 9, 2008. “I had invested a lot in the land when Mukasa disappeared, I decided to complete my house and wait for him for negotiations. I could not just move away without a single cent,†Ddamulira, who was limping, explains.
He says he had already sold another place in Bugonga in Entebbe Municipality and had no money to buy another plot.
Aloysius Gonzaga, Nakyanzi’s son, also lost a house and property which were destroyed by falling debris. He says they survived narrowly with his wife Oliver Namukwaya and their three children.
The deputy Police commander for Entebbe, Hilary Kulaige, condemned the act and said the Police are looking for Mukasa to answer charges of malicious damage. “Whether he is an army man or not, the law must be observed. People could have lost their lives that night.†By press time, attempts to trace Mukasa had proved futile as information showed he was in Mbarara.
Kulaige says Sewannyana, a resident of Wakiso, was arrested in connection with the case and detained at Entebbe Police together with two others.
The incident left the old woman Nakyanzi in a state of mental distress as she was found talking to herself while throwing her arms in the air. “Over my dead body. No one will take my land when I am still alive,†she vowed.
Nakyanzi said she left Bwerenga village in Wakiso district when she was a young girl and started doing business in Namulanda.
She says she bought the land from Mumbejja Nabisuubi, who complained that it was not fertile enough for cultivation. Nakyanzi’s daughter Ularia Nabukalu, 58, is worried the incident may affect her mother’s mental health.
“My mother had lost her sanity eight years ago but she had improved,†Nabukalu says.
Nabukalu says the land belongs to her mother. The LC1 chairman for Namulanda, Matiya Mukwaya condemned the inhuman act.
He said Mukasa bought three acres of land from the late Nakumusana in 1980, according to the papers he presented to the village executive.
Mukwaya says Mukasa claims Ddamulira, Gonzaga, Nakyanzi and part of Kennedy Primary School are occupying his land illegally and should vacate it to allow him develop it.