Govt to landlords: Stop evictions, accept busuulu 

Lands minister Judith Nabakooba has cautioned landlords across the country against evicting sitting tenants, urging them to instead accept  annual nominal ground rent commonly known as busuulu as stipulated in the law.

Ms Nabakooba also warned that errant landlords, as well as land dealers and local leaders who evict Bibanja holders in contravention of law, risk the wrath of government because the law and the President’s directives are clear-cut.

According to the Land Amendment Act, 2010, tenants can resist eviction, especially if they have been paying busuulu.

Landlords need a court order to evict tenants and must notify them before selling their land. However, some of these conditions are never followed and many tenants are being pushed off their land without court orders and due compensation.

“What I don’t agree with, is the rejection of busuulu because it is even indicated in the law. If the occupants have no money to get full ownership of the land, we have other alternatives. I don’t want to hear anyone telling me that you coerced them to give you money,” the minister said on Tuesday while addressing residents from different villages, who convened at Nswanjere Village, Mpenja Sub-county in Gomba District, to ease tension on some contested land.

“Let landlords make busuulu receipt books and tenants pay according to the rates you have here in Gomba,” she added.

The land in contention, Block 299, Plots 101, 102, 123, 216 and 218, covers villages of Kiriri, Nswanjere, Bujege, Kanzira and Kisubi in Mpenja Sub-county, Gomba District.

It approximately measures 2.5 square miles and has more than 1,000 residents who have farms and homes.

Title deeds are currently registered in the names of Mr Emma Katto, Mr Patrick Katto and Mr George Katto as administrators of the estate of the late Thomas Yamule ye Katto.

It is alleged that the administrators signed a memorandum of understanding with Bruno Nsekanabo through Tusiima Property Consultants Limited to facilitate the titling process and the consideration was part of the land in contention.

Ms Nabakooba said it is the district that is in charge of setting the busuulu rates for sitting tenants.

“If at all they fail, you can come to the ministry and we will give you the rates based on the value and location of the land,” the minister added.

In the meeting, Gomba East MP Godfrey Ssaazi accused the police of interfering with land issues in the area. However, Ms Nabakooba explained to him that police and local council leaders are responsible to cause sanity in their areas but have to do it with equity.

She called on the different security agencies and government officials to avoid corruption in matters to do with land.

“To evict people, you must have gone through a process which just doesn’t stop in court. It can as well proceed to the ministry,” she guided.

 Residents cry out

Mr Eddy Majanja, a resident of Bujege Village, claimed that his Kibanja (plot of land) was grabbed and subdivided into three plots, and his food crops destroyed.

Just like Mayanja, Ms Dorothy Nakamanyiro, a resident of Kisubi Village, said her piece of land was taken and the new owner planted eucalyptus trees on it.

“They destroyed all my crops without my knowledge. I have nothing to feed my grandchildren,” she said.

Local leaders speak out

Mr Michael Musisi, the chairperson of Kiriri Village, noted that after the death of Yamule ye Katto in 2018, the administrators asked sitting tenants to legalise their tenancy, threatening to bring wealthy people to buy it off.

Mr Bosco Ssegirinya, the chairperson of Mpenja Sub-county, explained that people can hardly embrace government programmes because their occupation is agriculture, and yet they have nowhere to practice it.

Background

Land has become a sticky issue in many districts in central Uganda, where wealthy people with land titles are evicting poor tenants from their ancestral land claiming that they are illegally settling on it. In 2021, government proposed land reforms, which government officials say are aimed at curing land grabbing.