Protect UPDF image and title deeds

Feb 03, 2008

For the last few weeks, the media has been awash with stories about a land dispute involving over 200 registered owners and a man seeking to dispossess them, with backing of a senior army officer. The land in question is at Bwebajja on Entebbe Road.

For the last few weeks, the media has been awash with stories about a land dispute involving over 200 registered owners and a man seeking to dispossess them, with backing of a senior army officer. The land in question is at Bwebajja on Entebbe Road.

Ironically, this dispute climaxed when the Land Bill, which seeks to protect tenants against unlawful eviction, was being published. But the Bwebajja case is more serious because the victims are not bibanja holders but title holders.

Thus, while the outcry has been about landlords unlawfully evicting tenants, someone is seeking to evict the landlords. If title holders can’t be secure on their land, bibanja holders won’t be better off even with a new law.

Moreover, the Bwebajja victims are not ordinary citizens; they include a judge, lawyers, engineers, architects, prominent businessmen and army officers. What then can the weak and poor bibanja holders do if the Bwebajja dispute is allowed to set a precedent that one can even harass or evict title holders without recourse to courts?

There is no better proof of ownership of land than a title deed and only court can declare a title void. It is wrong for Brig. Sam Wasswa to get involved on the side of Rashid Muyingo, who claims to be heir to the original landlord and is threatening the title holders with eviction.

Even if it was true that the titles are forged as Muyingo claims, the proper procedure would be to petition court in a civil case and if successful obtain a court order for eviction. But resident district commissioners, the Police and the Commissioner for Land Registration studied the case and found no proof of forgery on the part of the victims who bought the land from Muyingo’s grandparents.

Uganda has moved so far that nobody wants to see soldiers take the law into their hands, unhindered, again.

The army leadership should act and leave no room for speculation on why armed soldiers using army vehicles can terrorise property owners, destroy property and prevent construction – and get away with it.

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