Migereko warns land officials over Museveni directive

By Alfred Wandera

Minister of Land, Housing and Urban Development Daudi Migereko has issued a stern warning to zonal land officers whom he accused of flouting President Museveni’s directive not to authorize division of public land to private owners.

“I have directed the Permanent Secretary and commissioners to penalize those behaving in an unguided manner. We cannot have a system that functions without sanctions. You are the managers but you carry out delegated responsibility. When ou mess the land transaction system, the whole blame is shifted to the ministry,” said Migereko.

Migereko was speaking last week at Hotel Africana while officiating at the launch of the second phase of Land Information System (LIS) project to be implemented in the new ministry zonal offices across the country.

He said President Museveni issued a directive that no public land belonging to educational institutions, ministries and government agencies should be sub-divided for sell to private developers. He further reiterated that titles issued in wetlands are null and void and will be cancelled.

“If you have been issued with a title for land belonging to an educational institution, health centre or any government ministry or agency, it will be cancelled. You will be doing yourself a disservice to buy government land with intention of turning it into private property,” said Migereko.

“No public land should be transacted without the involvement of the user department. Even when the school chairman shows you minutes of a meeting resolving to sub-divide the land, don’t transact that land business,” added Migereko.

He said with the computerized land registry, there is no room for issuing multiple titles over one piece of land.

The first phase of LIS that began in 2010 has seen installation at nine sites including the ministry's zonal offices of Kampala, Jinja, Mukono, Wakiso, Masaka and Mbarara; Ministry headquarters in Kampala, Surveys and Mapping Department in Entebbe and the National Land Information Centre (NLIC) in Kampala.