Districts asked to settle tenancy on Buganda land

Buganda Kingdom premier Charles Peter Mayiga has asked district local councils occupying kingdom buildings at Ssaza and sub-county headquarters to quickly settle their tenancy rights and obligations since these properties were returned to the kingdom by the Government in 2013.

Mayiga made the remarks at Luwero district headquarters on Tuesday during a courtesy call to the chairperson, Ronald Ndawula, and the Resident District Commissioner, Mariam Kajiji.

"The Government returned the property to the kingdom so the district and sub-county authorities need to settle their tenancy rights on lease, rental basis or get land somewhere else to operate from. It is good we reach an agreement early because with many years taken, arrears will become huge to be cleared," Mayiga said.

He was in Butuntumula sub-county, where he launched season two of the agricultural year 2020 renovation campaign of coffee gardens across the kingdom at Nathan Kaggwa's home in Kyevunze. Ndawula had earlier asked Mayiga to intervene in their relationship with the Buganda Land Board regarding the utilisation of kingdom land on which administration units are located.

"We are glad the Katikkiro promised to intervene in land matters because we serve the same masses. We shall write to him explaining how we ought to operate on the kingdom land," he said.

Lutakome Ssentamu, the Uganda Coffee Development Officer in charge of Buganda, said he was glad that the partnership they entered with the kingdom in 2016 to promote coffee production had yielded huge dividends.

In the 2018/2019 financial year, Buganda produced one-third (1/3) of the five million bags which Uganda exported, he said.