Fight against impunity will end Bunyoro land conflicts -- Gen. Muhoozi

___________________

HOIMA

The state minister of internal affairs, Gen. David Muhoozi, has ordered the police land protection unit to document all land related cases ;in Bunyoro sub region ;within two weeks.During a high-level meeting convened by the state minister for Bunyoro affairs, Jennifer Kacha Namuyangu, held in Hoima City on Friday, Muhoozi attributed the increasing land conflicts in Bunyoro on impunity by some government officials.

Muhoozi said that governments efforts of solving land problems will not yield results if the impunity of the powerful and corrupt officials is not dealt with.

Muhoozi also directed the commandant land protection unit, Johnson Olala Dale, to follow up on the illegal evictions in Ndiaga in Kagadi district where it’s alleged that people’s houses were torched on Thursday evening by unknown people and several people were left homeless.

“There is a need to restore the integrity of the land title, nobody should play with it, it shouldn’t be only a paper, people should be sensitized about their rights,” Muhoozi said.

Muhoozi, the former chief of Defence Forces is the professional (head of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces) also warned the officers in not to abuse their powers by engaging in land related conflicts.

“There are a lot of issues in the Bunyoro sub-region and we need to ;resolve, ministry of lands should organize more interactive sessions with the communities so that we find solutions to those challenges,” Muhoozi said.

He also directed the security to follow up on the people who are allegedly in prison over what has been termed as ; fabricated charges.

Harriet Businge, the Hoima woman Member of Parliament, blamed the rampant land eviction cases on the security ;personnel whom she said have ;not acted.

“Recently, people were evicted in Kapapi and Buraru sub counties and the minister for Lands ordered them to go back to their homes but security denied them access to their land,” Businge said.

Businge warned that without immediate intervention by the government, most families in Bunyoro will be rendered landless. She called on the government to accord Bunyoro special consideration and prevent the rampant land evictions in the region. ;

Banabas Tinkasimire, the Buyaga West Member of Parliament, asked the government to prevail over the absentee landlords who were compensated by the government but they are still threatening to evict people.

“We want to know the landlords who were paid off by the government under the land fund because many people in Kagadi district in areas of Mpefu and Ndaiga are being threatened with eviction,” Tinkasimire said.

In 2013, the government formulated a comprehensive National Land Policy as a policy framework for the “efficient, equitable, and optimal” utilization and management of Uganda’s land and land-based resources for poverty reduction, wealth creation, and overall socio-economic development of the Country.

He said the new policy will provide solutions to most of these, especially regarding the land tenure systems, which will also help tackle conflicts on customary-owned land. ;

Jeniffer Kacha Namuyangu, the state minister for Bunyoro affairs, said that currently many people in Hoima, Kikuube and Buliisa have left their homes and they are staying in bushes because their lands have been forcefully taken away by grabbers.

“The issue of land grabbing in Bunyoro is still a very big challenge and some members of the security are involved. Many people are suffering, they have been rendered homeless, they don’t have food because their land has been taken,” Namuyangu said.

She said that leaders in the Bunyoro sub-region have been raising a red flag over the increasing existence of fraudulent land titles in the Bunyoro sub-region. ;

Namuyangu described the current trend of evictions as appalling, with many families spending sleepless nights.

Richard Juuko the undersecretary in the ministry of lands said that as a ministry they had canceled several land titles which have been illegally acquired in different districts of Bunyoro sub region.

Juuko said that they intend to decentralize the land information system up to the district levels so that people can easily access information concerning the status of their lands.

In March this year, more than 500 families in Kapapi and Kiganja sub-counties were brutally evicted from their homes. Police and private security guards reportedly torched more than 50 homes.

The affected people, mainly cultivators, and pastoralists, were feuding with Moses Asiimwe, a tycoon in Hoima City, over approximately 5 square miles of land covering the villages of Waaki North, Kapapi Central, Waaki South, Runga, and Kiryatete.

Over 2,000 families in Hoima district face eviction from their ancestral land. The affected families are residents of Rwobunyonyi, Kirindasojo, and Kihohoro villages in the Buraru sub-county.

;They are feuding with Fred Mugamba, a business man in Hoima City, over land measuring 810 hectares. The families claim to have occupied the contested land since the 1940s and accuse Mugamba of slashing their crops and torching their houses. However, Mugamba maintains that the land belongs to him and he acquired it legally.

According to the 2020-2021 JLOS (Justice, Law and Order Sector) Annual report, there was a backlog of 30,508 land cases, in the subsequent year, it registered 10,436 new land cases bringing the total of land cases to 40,944 in the magistrates and high courts. ;

Of these a total of 9,303 (22.7%) land cases were completed and a total of 31,641 (77.3%) pending. ;

Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).