Govt stops Luzira land allocation

BY PASCAL KWESIGA      

About 450 families would have been left landless if a fraudulent plan to allocate their land to two companies in Kirombe Luzira in Kampala by local land officials had not been stopped.

The ministry of land has stopped the fraudulent process of allocation of the land measuring 4.029 hectares in Kirombe zone stretching from plot 22-36 on Mudama road after residents got wind of the plot and reported it.

A delegation of ministers from ministries of water and environment, justice and constitutional affairs toured the land on Monday and assured residents that the fraudulent allocation had been halted.

The minister for land, housing and urban development, Daudi Migereko told residents that the government had cancelled the land allocation to Tesco Industries Ltd and Homemade commodities because it has been established that the land belongs to about 13,000 people.

A source said area technical land officials indicated in a report to Uganda Land Commission (ULC) after reportedly inspecting the land that there are no people on it save for a few land miners and sugar cane plantations. Uganda Land Commission is an institution that manages public land.

A source said ULC officials sometimes find themselves on the wrong side of the law when they give out land that is not titled hoping to get away with it regardless of whether the land has occupants or not as long as there is no title.  

However the land along a wetland that stretches from Kireka through Namugongo, Luzira and Butabiika has scores of residential houses and sprawling trading centers.

Information from the lands ministry also indicate that Nakawa Division land committee recommended Tesco Industries Ltd to apply for a lease offer and survey of the land in total disregard of the interests of the occupants of the land.

The lease application process was then forwarded to the ULC. Although the initial process of acquiring the land was undertaken by Tesco Industries Ltd, the approval of the lease offer by the area land officials was made to Home Made Commodities that is said to be based in Mukono.   

The lease offer was reportedly approved to Home Made commodities in May by ULC. However ULC could not submit the lease offer application to the land registration department in land ministry after residents under Kirombe Land Owners association filed a complaint.

However the ministers established that some of the houses on that land are constructed in a wetland that stretches up to Lake Victoria.

The Water and Environment minister Maria Mutagamba told residents that her ministry was currently demarcating wetlands in the country, adding that all those who would be found to have encroached on the wetland would be asked to leave.

The state minister for justice and constitutional affairs, Fred Ruhindi who is also the area MP cautioned the people against encroaching on the wetland.