Museveni land: Minister pins senior lands officer

Jul 02, 2020

Namuganza said Kajumbula, then a commissioner for surveying and mapping, allegedly helped the two men accused of fraudulently acquiring five land titles on the President’s private land at Katwe-Kambwa village in Kabulasoke sub-county.

By Chris Kiwawulo and Peter Ssaava

Lands state minister Persis Namuganza has pinned Modpher Kajumbula, a former lands commissioner, as the man at the centre of grabbing part of President Yoweri Museveni's land in Gomba district.

Namuganza said Kajumbula, then a commissioner for surveying and mapping, allegedly helped the two men accused of fraudulently acquiring five land titles on the President's private land at Katwe-Kambwa village in Kabulasoke sub-county.

The two men — Peter Sseggane and Jimmy Ssuuna — have since been arrested by the head of the State House Anti-corruption Unit and the Police.

Addressing journalists at her office in Kampala on Tuesday, Namuganza said two of the titles were forged in 2014 with the help of Kajumbula.

The head of the State House Anti-corruption unit, Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema, said the suspects and others involved would be arrested on charges of fraudulently acquiring land titles for Museveni's land.

During the press briefing, Nakalema said they were investigating several senior lands officials over the matter, adding that some have already recorded statements.

She mentioned the officials involved as the then Kyankwanzi district surveyor, Shadrack Ssemugabi (currently in the US); the then cartographer, Kennedy Avola and Nicholas Wamboga, who is currently on interdiction over alleged land fraud in Wakiso district.

Nakalema revealed that someone, who had already advanced the two men an unspecified amount of money for the land, had voluntarily surrendered the titles to her office.

Namuganza said her ministry previously had no system of tracking land titles, a loophole which Ssuuna and Sseggane exploited to forge titles.

"Under the new system, known as the Land Information System, we managed to detect the forged titles. People used to alternate the block and plot numbers and when the ministry tried to carry out real survey and mapping, we found that it is the same piece of land," Namuganza said.

She noted that with the help of Kajumbula, Sseggane and Ssuuna interchanged the President's block number from 396 to 369. On February 1, 1997, the Lands Commission issued Museveni with a 44-year lease on block 396 plot 4.

This was after the President applied to the lands ministry for a lease on public land (formerly Crown Land), which is under the control of Uganda Land Commission.

The Fraud According to a statement read by the ministry's permanent secretary, Dorcas Okalany, Sseggane and Ssuuna in 2014 approached the Kabulasoke area land committee and showed them a deed plan, which is alleged to have been signed by Kajumbula.

This year, when Museveni wanted to further develop his land, he found out that it had three overlapping titles on block 369, plots 7, 8 and 9.

Plot 7 measures 45.357 hectares, plot 8 (31.277 hectares) and plot 9 (46.968 hectares). According to Okalany, the Gomba district land board erroneously allocated the land to Sseggane and Ssuuna, which land had earlier been allocated to the first applicant - Museveni.

"Ministry officials visited the land. The area land committee should have detected the anomaly, but for unknown reasons, they consented and gave out a minute, which went directly to the district and created another piece of land (block)," Namuganza observed.

She said the new Land Information System reached Mpigi district last year, which has helped them to detect all the forged titles, including those on the President's land.

"Under the new system, interchanging or alternating of block numbers is impossible, which was not the case with the old system. Fraud on the President's land happened in 2014 and these titles are pending cancellation," she pointed out.

Namuganza explained that many other titles were created and are overlapping on the same block and plots, adding that the ministry has already started cancelling the fraudulently acquired ones after being detected under the new system.

She asked those who will not be contented with cancellation of their titles to go to courts of law and seek redress.

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