The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A team of detectives from the Land Protection Unit at the Criminal Investigations Department-CID headquarters Kibuli has pitched camp in Hoima district to investigate the violent eviction of over 2,000 people from their homes in Katerega parish in Buhanika sub-county in Hoima district.
The officers were seen this morning recording statements from some of the affected people at Katerega catholic church. The affected families were brutally evicted from their homes by bailiffs from Maji Moto auctioneers and Court bailiffs in February this year.
This was the climax of a decade long wrangle between residents, Augustine Bisoborwa and Lt. Col. Innocent Kasimbazi alias Innocent Ayesiga, a Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) soldier over the contested land.
The evictions were based on an order issued by the Hoima Grade One Magistrate’ss Court in favor of the two claimants. However, the affected residents led by NyendwohaYosamu Kiiza, Onen Vicente and Deogratius Ayesiga petitioned both the State House Legal department and the CID headquarters for redress.
One of the detectives, who spoke to Uganda Radio Network on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, says they are in Hoima to investigate the matter to establish the truth on ground.
“We are here to get statements and confessions from the victims and investigate the matter to its logical conclusion but we cannot talk to you for fear of jeopardizing our investigations on who we are investigating and our next course of action,” the officer said.
URN has also reliably learnt that top district officials are being investigated for their involvement in the land eviction. Deogratious Kiiza, one of the residents whose houses were torched and crop gardens destroyed during the brutal eviction, wants all those behind the eviction prosecuted.
He also wants to be resettled on his land, adding that all the affected families be compensated for the loss of produce and property.
Omuhereza Birungi, another affected resident, says she is happy now that government has vested interest in their case, saying the eviction was characterized by a lot of untold suffering more especially to women and children.
James Akandwanaho, another affected resident, says he wants justice to prevail since the court order was also violated.
On November 23, 2019 the president’s office wrote to Hoima Resident District Commissioner-RDC Samuel Kisembo directing him to immediately furnish his office with a report on the said land dispute, the manner in which the eviction was carried out and the people affected by the court order.
Flora Kiconco, the Head of the Legal Department in State House wrote another letter on behalf of the Private Secretary to the President on September 23, 2019 to the RDC, saying the President was told by the evictees that the eviction arose from a court order by Civil Suit Number: 077 of 2015.
In the letter, the President argued that court ordered for the eviction of occupants of one acre of land and wondered how it ended up affecting residents of four villages.
The affected families have since sought shelter under trees, churches and in the home of the area Member of Parliament, Pius Wakabi while others are staying with their relatives under harsh conditions.
*****
URN
