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Bobi Wine speaks out on Magere land dispute
National Unity Platform president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine (right), beats a drum presented by supporters from Kyotera District at the party offices in Kamwokya, Kampala, on May 5, 2021. PHOTO / MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
- "These have been schemes by the government to see that I don’t remain with anything. All my properties have since been contested following my presidential bid...,” Robert Kyagulanyi, NUP president
National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has said the dispute over the ownership of 640 acres of Magere land is “another form of government persecution” targeting him.
Bobi Wine told Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday that he acquired his land, which is part of that dispute, in 2002 and that he has all the documents to support his occupancy of it.
He also revealed that he bought part of the disputed land before most of the current occupants had settled on it.
“These have been schemes by the government to see that I don’t remain with anything. All my properties have since been contested following my presidential bid. I am not scared because I have the land title to this land and many Ugandans on this land, just like have been on other pieces of land, are suffering because of me,” Bobi Wine said.
“Taking on a dictator is certainly no mean feat, but it will end in victory for the people. No dictator’s story has ever been the rise and rise - it is usually the rise and fall! So will it be for Gen Museveni.”
Bobi Wine said he does not know the woman who is claiming ownership of the land located in Magere Village, Kasangati Town Council in Wakiso District.
On Tuesday, Daily Monitor reported that Bobi Wine and 2,000 other occupants of the land registered under Plot 38, Block 191 in Kyadondo were facing eviction after Ms Justine Nakamatte Namusisi allegedly placed a caveat on what she calls her property. She claims she got the land from her parents who in turn inherited it from her late grandfather, Isaaka Kasana.
The case puts at stake the ownership of land that the village chairperson, Mr Yekosofat Makubuya, estimates is owed by 2,000 residents.
Bobi Wine yesterday said he is battling similar cases of political persecution targeting his properties in other places.
“All my properties in Kamwokya and Busabala are being contested by some people who are being used. The challenge is that those that go to court can never defend their cases to the end and that is why after some time, they go silent,” he said.
In 2018, a landlord, M/s Pearl Hope Investments Ltd, through Lubega, Matovu and Company Advocates notified Bobi Wine and 400 other occupants of the land located in Mulimira, Kisenyi and Old Kira Road on Block 213 Plots 20-78 about the planned eviction. Court later blocked the impending eviction, pending a full investigation.
In 2017, part of Bobi Wine’s One Love Beach in Busabala was razed over the continuous contestations between the occupants of the land and Buganda Kingdom. To date, the matter has never been settled.
