Museveni wants two weeks to fix Kayunga land wrangles KAYUNGA After spending Wednesday in the search for a solution to the volatile situation pitting tenants against landlords in Kayunga District, President Museveni has given himself two weeks to come up with answers. “If the land owners made mistakes we shall ask them to correct them and if squatters stayed on the land illegally we shall see how to help you because we are all Ugandans,” he said. The President met land owners and tenants in the district and moved to diffuse mounting tensions between the opposed sides, indicating that he has ordered deployment of security personnel. Mr Museveni said land problems in Uganda are very easy to solve. “I defeated [former President] Obote so these ones won’t beat me. Land is not like a handkerchief which you put in the pocket and walk away, we can always get the truth because we can trace the history. So I have come here as the judge and to find the truth.” After commissioning a soap and oil manufacturing factory, Mr Museveni had headed to the farm of Mr Eriya Paul Kiwanuka, a 58-year-old businessman in Kokotelo Village. Mr Kiwanuka is locked up in conflict with more than 100 tenants to whom the junior lands minister, Ms Nantaba, forcefully redistributed land he also lays claim to. The minister’s actions were in defiance of a court order. One of the tenants, Mr Everest Baguma, now living in a makeshift structure, said: “I was born here and even my parents were born on this land. Kiwanuka forced us out 10 years ago but Ms Nantaba asked us to come back. We shall not leave this land.” The President later spoke privately with either side before reporting to the anxious crowd: “I have established that Kiwanuka bought the land from Jane Nabuma but he was in the wrong for bringing his cows to eat people’s crops. We shall investigate further and get back to you.” The crowd seemed disappointed with some saying they were assured weeks earlier by the minister of a presidential order forcing Kiwanuka off the 497 acres. Mr Kiwanuka is, however, adamant that he acquired the land rightfully in 2003 at Shs12 million. “I have never had a problem with these squatters till Nantaba came to that office,” he said. Indeed, several people in the crowd told this newspaper that they weren’t residents but “Nantaba’s people.” Attributing the wrangles to dishonesty, Mr Museveni also faulted a one Karangwa who is laying claim to a contested 400-acre tract of land in Kinamawanga Village, Bbaale Sub-county. “I don’t know which magic Karangwa used to get a lease on top of another lease for this land but I have talked to him and the widow who sold the land. These are now battles for the rich, stay away from them and fight your own,” he said. Ms Nantaba insisted that “the police is conniving with these thieves to steal people’s land. The poor cannot win a case involving land these days.” She paraded families of seven people whose disappearance she claimed was engineered by Karangwa in 2010. Meanwhile, landlords under their umbrella organisation, Kayunga Reconciliation for Development Effort, said they will petition Parliament over Ms Nantaba’s “illegal” activities. Speaking to the press on Thursday, their chairperson, Mr Arthur Kiiza, said instead of following the land law, Ms Nantaba was allegedly politicising the matter for her own vested interests. “The minister (Nantaba) has refused to respect court orders, LCs, police, security. We have a government in place. We … shall make a report which we shall present before Parliament,” Mr Kiiza said. He added: “Landlords and tenants and different tribes have been living in harmony until Nantaba was appointed minister.” Mr Kiiza said they were happy that the President is listening to both sides. Ms Nantaba dismissed claims by the landlords when contacted by the Daily Monitor, saying such threats would not stop her from assisting the poor who are being tortured by landlords. The minister said she would defend her actions in Parliament if she is asked to do so.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 06:46:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015