Citizens' Manifesto: Land-grabbers leave voters broken, homeless
Nov 23, 2020
The findings about land issues were realised after an opinion poll conducted by Vision Group, which aimed at gauging the perceptions of Ugandans towards socioeconomic, political and cultural issues in the country.
Issues of land-grabbing, fraudsters and fake titling of land grossly affect Ugandans in all regions of the country, a survey by Vision Group has revealed. This is followed by insufficient land for cultivation and grazing, as well as infertile soils and land inheritance wrangles.
Unlike other regions, however, the central region recorded issues of expensive and unaffordable land and rampant sale of the resource. The findings about land issues were realised after an opinion poll conducted by Vision Group, which aimed at gauging the perceptions of Ugandans towards socioeconomic, political and cultural issues in the country.
ABOUT THE POLL
Vision Group conducts the public opinion poll in a fi veyear interval and towards national general elections, targeting potential voters aged 18 years and above. This particular poll was conducted between March 13 and 24, this year in 45 districts across the country. About 5,987 respondents were interviewed.
Besides the land issues, the poll also ranked other issues affecting Ugandans, including education, road network, health, agriculture, national security, child-related issues, energy and power, environment and poverty.
Others were employment, leadership, domestic issues, business and economics, sports, tradition, religion, water and sanitation and the media. Land-grabbing and fraud issues have for years remained matters of national importance as many Ugandans have lost their land to powerful government and other connected individuals.
The situation was worsened with the advent of real estate land dealers in the late 1990s, whom many Ugandans, including those working abroad, entrusted with their money. However, with time, cases of fraud started to creep into the business, with dealers selling land to more than one person, sometimes without issuing titles.
In 2004, a then prominent land dealer, Patrick Kasulu, the Property Masters proprietor, was arrested and convicted over land fraud. Other companies, such as Anatoli Kamugisha's Akright and Hossana Real Estate Agency, were also faced with fraud allegations, and many have since closed. But the problem is simply continuing.
As a way of resolving the land fraud vice in the country, former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, in May 2017 launched a campaign against land-grabbing after he had reportedly received so many complaints from Ugandans.
Besigye said the campaign, dubbed ‘My Land, My Life', was meant to mobilise Ugandans to resist all forms of land-grabbing by government and its agents. However, Police stopped Besigye's campaign, saying it was against the Public Order Management Act, as it was reportedly promoting public incitement and disobedience.
According to the annual Police crime reports, land frauds have been reported every other year, which include among others cases of obtaining money and registration of land by false pretence, forgery and uttering false documents, as well as fraudulent land sales.
In 2017, a total of 469 land fraud cases were reported, 478 were reported in 2018, while 345 cases were reported last year (2019). The Police chief, Martin Okoth Ochola, said Ugandans had lost over sh3b in fraudulent land transactions.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
David Migereko, the former lands minister, said the buck starts with the calibre of people that voters put in offi ce, right from the village to the district level.
"There is need for sensitisation of villagers to vote for people with integrity into leadership positions; to vote for leaders who will not falsify records or claim that land belongs to someone, whereas not. It is extremely important that people with integrity are the ones voted into leadership right from LCI to LC5, because it is these leaders who select from among themselves the land committees. We need people who will not be compromised," Migereko stated.
The former minister also suggested that there should be a record of land ownership all over the country, adding that once the lands ministry's land title computerisation programme and land registration decentralisation works out well, there will be information on land ownership at all levels.
Efforts to get a comment from the lands minister, Beti Kamya, the ministry's permanent secretary, Dorcas Okalany and spokesperson, Dennis Obbo, were futile as they did not respond to our request for a comment.
ENTEBBE CASES
Entebbe is among the municipalities that were recently elevated to city status, although it will start being operational in the year 2022. Once Uganda's capital city, Entebbe lost this status in post-colonial times when the native government took over Kampala and made it the country's capital.
According to the new plans of elevating Entebbe to a city status, adjacent areas and local councils are to be annexed in order to increase on the residents' population and land acreage to form the airport city.
Areas to be annexed to Entebbe municipality include Katabi town council, Kajjansi town council, Kasanje sub-county and Bussi subcounty. As a result, pressure on land has increased, especially in Katabi town, resulting in cases of land-grabbing and forceful evictions.
Several residents of Katabi have complained about forceful eviction by security organs. Tom Tamale, a resident of Nkumba in Wakiso district, narrated how a man called John Muzungu allegedly abducted him (Tamale) at gunpoint after the latter was found
constructing his boss' house.
"He found me building, pointed a gun at me and dragged me away from the site," narrated Tamale.
He said he later opened up a case of threatening violence at Entebbe Police Station, referenced as SD 51/13/02/2019, but Muzungu was never arrested. Relatedly, Henry Kabuye, a resident of Bugabo in Katabi town council, had his house demolished multiple times in a land row.
Kabuye alleged that Muzungu grabbed several people's land in Katabi town council, calling himself an army officer. Kabuye's case was reported to Mpala Police Station under reference SD 03/27/07/2019, but Muzungu was still not arrested.
Still last year on November 17, Muzungu, in the company of several men, allegedly raided premises belonging to a one Moses Bbosa and robbed money, in addition to destroying property worth millions of shillings.
During the raid, several people, who were guarding the premises, were injured before Police were called in. Muzungu and his clique allegedly went into hiding until they were arrested later in December.
He was detained together with George Tindyebwa, 40, a resident of Lubaga division in Kampala and Ayub Tukundane, 34, of Makindye, also in Kampala. The trio and others still at large, were charged with aggravated robbery and malicious damage to property at Entebbe Magistrates' Court (CRB 1215/19), before being committed to the High Court, where they continue to face charges.
Even as Muzungu and members of his clique are in detention, alleged land grabbers in areas of Entebbe and Katabi are yet to relent. Ronald Kalema, the Katabi town council chairperson, said on average, eight land-related cases are reported to his office every week.
"I have tried to solve some and forwarded the rest to higher offices," noted Kalema, adding that the town council leadership has in the past carried out massive sensitisation about land laws and policies.
Land disputes in regions
Overall, land was raised as the ninth most important issue out of the 20 issues looked at, and western Uganda had the highest land issues at 7.1%, followed by the northern region at 4.8%, eastern with 4.7% and the central region at 3.6%.
The west had the highest number of land cases per district, with Hoima having the highest cases at 15.7%, followed by Ibanda at 10.7% out of the 11 districts surveyed in the region.
The central region had the second highest number of cases recorded in a single district, Masaka, at 8.6% compared to others. Kiboga followed with 8%, Lyantonde at 6.2% and Ssembabule at 6.1% out of the 10 districts surveyed in the central.
Districts in eastern Uganda came third, with Budaka registering 7.3%, the third highest number of cases registered in a single district. This was followed by Kumi at 6.3%, out of the 12 districts surveyed in the region.
Researchers found that all the other 10 districts in the east, however, registered cases below 5%. The north had the fourth district with a high number of cases compared to other districts in other regions. Lira was the most notorious with 7% cases, followed by Arua (6.9%), Pader (6.7%), Zombo (6.5%) and Nakapiripirit (6.3%).
Compiled by By Chris Kiwawulo, Julius Luwemba and Jackie Nambogga