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Fishermen refuse to vacate land claimed by UPDF soldier
Entebbe deputy mayor Richard Ssekyondo (blue shirt) addresses fishermen, who vowed not to vacate the disputed land at Kigungu Landing Site in Entebbe Municipality. PHOTO / EVE MUGANGA
Tension is simmering between a section of fishermen operating at Kigungu Landing Site in Entebbe Municipality and Mr Hebert Mwesigye over a piece of land, Daily Monitor has established.
The land in question, measuring 100x100 feet, is located near Kigungu Landing Site in Mayanzi Village.
Mr Mwesigye, a soldier attached to Uganda People’s Defence Air Force (UPDAF), claims he is the rightful owner of the land .
Residents accuse Mr Mwesigye of plotting to evict them and setting up a detach for Local Defence Unit (LDU) personnel .
“We have been occupying this land for many years as fishermen, but Mr Mwesigye wants to evict us, where does he want us to go?’’ Mr John Bamuwayira, one of the residents, asked during an interview at the weekend.
Ms Beya Soki, a resident, said she is a single mother of three children and her husband was arrested by the army over engaging in illegal fishing.
“We make a living from here and I have nowhere to go,” she said.
Mr Richard Ssekyondo, the Entebbe deputy mayor, said Mr Mwesigye did not follow the right procedure to acquire the land .
“ He [Mwesigye] has set up a pit-latrine near the lake shores, which is illegal and we are also still investigating how he acquired that land,” he said.
However, Mr Mwesigye insists he acquired the land in 2007 from the family of a one late Wamala.
“ It’s my dad who paid for that land. We have a land title for it. Those people [fishermen] have been utilising our land without paying any occupancy fees so when they learnt that I am donating it to the LDUs to setup a detach, they have run to the media. It is my land and no one is going to stop me from utilising it ,” he said in a telephone interview at the weekend.
He added: “It’s absurd that politicians are misleading them because they are the ones who have been eating their money therefore let the authority find for them another place.”
Maj George Byamukama Kazaara, the officer in-charge of LDUs in Entebbe, said they have been looking for land to set up a detach.
“The number of LDUs is increasing and we need where to put them, when I shared this with Mr Mwesigye, he offered us some piece of land. I told him to put it in writing and attach his land title, which he did,” he said.
About land
Conflicts. Land has continued to be a sticky issue in many districts, where wealthy people with land titles are evicting tenants from their ancestral land claiming illegal settlement.
Political pundits say this could be one of the reasons government registered a dismal performance in the just-concluded presidential elections in central region.
Law. A decade ago, Parliament passed the Land Amendment Act, 2010, which government said was to protect tenants from illegal evictions.
According to the Act, tenants can resist eviction, especially if they have been paying the annual nominal ground rent. The law allows the tenants to either pay annual nominal ground rent (busuulu) fixed by the minister or by their district land boards.
Landlords need a court order to evict tenants and must notify them before selling their land.
