Fraud cited as 230 Luweero families face eviction from land

On June 18, 2016, the families were told that the district land board had given leased out the land to Mark II, another investment company, which they said is another investment company.
Mr Hassan Ssegawa, the chairperson Bulemeezi Rice and Wheat Growers Association, claims that he got information from a reliable source that the district land board had finalised plans of leasing out Block 250 to one of the interested parties, Mark II Investments after minutes detailing an alleged meeting between sitting tenants and the area land committee were presented to the district land board.
“We are not aware of any meeting which convened, an indication that the minutes presented could have been forged,” Mr Ssegawa said during a recent interview.

Mr Ronald Ndawula, the Luweero District chairman, says he only learnt of “the dubious” transaction from officials of the district land board after they were summoned by the district executive committee to clarify on the matter.
Mr Ndawula says: “The members of the DLB (district land board) confirmed that they were presented with minutes of a meeting by the area land committee who cleared the lease offer. The members claimed that they were forced to believe the minutes by officials who they were not at liberty to disclose at the time.”
Mr Ndawula told the affected residents during a meeting: “We are going to create a commission of inquiry to probe their operations because they are amassing wealth at the expense of innocent and genuine land owners. This land will not be taken away from you because we have agreed to meet the commissioner for lands over the same matter.”

Confusing
In following up the matter, officials of Bulemeezi Rice and Wheat Growers Association carried out a search at the Bukalasa Land Office to ascertain the status of the land.
According to the search statement they got from the Registrar of Land Titles at Bukalasa land office, Ms Madiinah Nabukeera, the land had no encumbrances following the expiry of a 49 year lease offer to Bulemeezi Rice and Wheat Growers Association.
The search statement further showed that there were two parties with vested interest in the land, Bulemeze Rice and Wheat Growers Association and Mark II Investments.
This information contradicts what Hajji Abdul Nadduli, now Minister without portfolio, told the Luweero District Council in October 2013 when he was district chairman.

Hajj Nadduli briefed the district Council then that Goodman International, an investment Company, had been offered a 49yr lease for Block 650 to develop a sugarcane plantation and factory at Kagoye village. It is not clear whether the lease offer to Goodman International was cancelled or was never awarded in the first place.
Daily Monitor has seen a photocopy of a 49 year lease title offer to Goodman International dated October 22, 2011 signed by Mr Hood Luyima, then the Luweero District natural resources officer, on behalf of the district land board. Mr Usamagubara Erikhadir and Mr Khadir Omar signed on behalf of Goodman International Company.
On March 23, 2013, Luweero District land officials at a meeting convened by Ms Nantaba confirmed that Kagoye public land on Block 650, plot 267 had been leased to Goodman International.

Mr Ndawula in a recent telephone interview with the Daily Monitor said his office instituted a committee to investigate and report back to his office the status of public land on Block 650, Plot 267.
“The district is overwhelmed with land complaints where the district land office is at the center of controversy. We cannot afford to have more than 200 families displaced from farming land under unclear circumstances.”
He added: “The Kagoye land issue must be put to rest because these farmers need to engage in meaningful farming projects with assurance that they are lawful occupants on this particular land,” Mr Ndawula said.

“Forged minutes”
The minutes in which residents under Bulemezi Rice and Wheat Growers Association are said to have met with the area land committee before a recommendation for the land in question to be leased out have since been dismissed as forged.
“We are surprised that minutes of the area land committee suggest that we attended a meeting with them. We are not aware of the existence of such a committee in our area, let alone attending any meeting. The copies regarding minutes of such a meeting are forged. We have since proved this forgery because names appearing on this list are not known to be members of our association,” Mr Ssegawa, the chairperson the Association, told a meeting attended by Mr Ndawula recently.

The district Council has now placed a caveat on the contested land pending investigations.
“We do not want to have a landless class of people in our district simply because we have a land board with powers to determine who owns land basing on the financial abilities of particular individuals,” Mr Ndawula says. “We are also rooting for serious reforms at the district land board with a view of building confidence in an office believed to be a breeding ground for land conflicts in Luweero.”
Land challenges are on increase in Luweero District and a leading cause of insecurity with more than 10 land-related cases registered daily, says Luweero District Resident District Commissioner Alice Muwanguzi.

“We are really sitting on a time bomb and if not addressed soon, we are likely to face a serious a problem,” says.
Mr Peter Kintu, the Luweero District land board chairperson, was not keen to speak to Daily Monitor about the matter.
In a brief interview he said he was unaware of any illegalities regarding activities extended to clients by his office.
“Our operations are guided by the existing land laws. All individuals with complaints against our office should file them directly to our office so that we can fix the problems. I have heard about the rice and wheat growers association. They have complained and we believe their case will be settled,” Mr Kintu said.

The operation of district land boards has in a number of cases been a matter of contention. After the changeover from Kampala City Council to Kampala Capital City Authority in 2010/2011, for instance, there was a debilitating war over control of the land that the land board presides over.
KCCA executive director and several government officials, including the Solicitor General, argued that since Kampala was no longer a district, it could not conceivably have a district land board and that all the land previously under the land board would then revert to the control of KCCA.

Mr Yusuf Nsibambi, the land board chairman, eventually prevailed, and he always cited the Constitution to argue his case. District land boards are provided for under Article 240 of the Constitution and their functions are broadly spelt out in Article 241.
The land boards are mandated to hold and allocate land in the districts which is not owned by any person or authority; facilitate the registration and transfer of interests in land and to deal with all other matters connected with land in the districts. They have to do all this, of course, in accordance with laws made by Parliament.According to the Constitution, the land boards, while performing their duties, shall be independent of the Uganda Land Commission and shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person and authority but shall take into account national and district policy on land.

As the Luweero District Council carries out its investigations as the chairperson has vowed, therefore, it is important to note that there will be legal landmines to navigate.
Ms Persis Namuganza, the state minister for Land, says land problems in Luweero area are “very complex”, but that some will be resolved through the rolling out of the Land Fund in this area.
“Like the case in Nakasongola District, our leaders should start identifying absentee landlords including people who own big chunks of land with sitting tenants for possible compensation through the land fund. Our land officials should be very transparent and help in resolving some of the problems,” Ms Namuganza says.

Other land cases in Luweero

In January 2015, about 140 families threatened to lynch a group of land surveyors who attempted to open boundaries on a 150 hectare piece of land on Block 173, Plots 47 and 48 in Bamunanika Sub County.
The land surveyors claimed to be acting on the instructions of Ms Florence Naiga, widow of the late Lt Col Jet Mwebaze, who had reportedly got a 49-year lease offer from the Uganda Land Commission in 1986 but the land had never been surveyed.
Ms Naiga claimed that her late husband had donated part of the land to the National Resistance Army casualty group. The army was ready to use the land donated to them, she said, but it had not been officially handed to them.

Residents protested the demarcation claiming that nobody had ever approached them regarding the land.
“We want the UPDF and the Uganda Land Commission to come and explain the land transaction including our fate as sitting tenants,” Mr Rajab Ssemanda, one of the affected residents told a meeting attended by Luweero District officials.
The UPDF, through the deputy spokesperson Maj Henry Obbo, in a telephone interview distanced itself from any planned land acquisition in the area using a civilian.

“The UPDF has a land board which handles land matters and not civilians using the name of the UPDF in matters not known to the UPDF,” Maj Obbo said.
A caveat was slapped on the land by the then Luweero District Woman MP Brenda Nabukenya to protect the affected families from eviction.
Another case of land eviction threat involves land in Makulubita Sub County where three businessmen reportedly got a 49-year lease offer on a 355 hectare piece of public land.
The businessmen claimed to have acquired the land from Luweero District land board in 2010 and had planned to open boundaries without consulting the area local officials and the Sub-county leaders.