The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leaders in Bunyoro sub region are appealing to the Lands Ministry to immediately intervene and have all land Titles acquired fraudulently in the region cancelled.
According to the leaders, there are many land titles in the region that were acquired fraudulently hence putting the locals on the verge of being evicted from their ancestral land.
Stephen Birahwa Mukitale, the Buliisa County Member of parliament explains that thousands of people in Buliisa district are at the verge of being forcefully evicted from their land by people who fraudulently acquired titles.He says the most affected sub counties are Ngwedu, Biiso and Butiaba among others.
Pius Wakabi, the Bugahya County Member of Parliament in Hoima district says many grabbers with high profiles, said to be connected to the state have invaded his constituency grabbing land from the locals. He wants the lands ministry to investigate the land Titles and have them revoked so that the local persons can have peace.
Harriet Businge, the Hoima Woman MP wonders why people from Kampala are acquiring land in Bunyoro without the consent of the area leaders.
She says if the issue is not immediately investigated and addressed, many people in the Bunyoro sub region could become landless.
Businge adds that most of the land grabbers who are highly connected to the government have gone ahead to brand genuine land owners in the region as rebels in order to capture the support of security in their evil deeds.
Simon Agaba Kinene, the LC5 Chairperson for Buliisa says rich people have used the advantage of the ignorance of the local people to grab land in the district and the entire region. He says currently in Buliisa, many families are threatened with eviction yet they are the genuine land owners.
Kadir Kirungi, the Hoima district LC5 Chairperson wants the lands ministry to institute a special committee to immediately investigate the mushrooming land Titles in the Bunyoro sub region.
He says the oil discovery in the Bunyoro sub region is becoming a threat to peoples’ land and therefore government should pay special attention to Bunyoro as far as acquisition of land is concerned.
Charlis Wandera,a resident of Kyabigambire sub county in Hoima district says many of them are living in fear after some unscrupulous people recently came and surveyed their land without their consent.
Recently while in Bunyoro sub region Betty Kamya, the lands Minister explained that her ministry is soon coming up with a program to map, survey, demarcate and Title all the land in the Bunyoro sub region.
A number of brutal and forceful evictions have taken place in the Bunyoro sub region since 2014 and the victims have never been accorded any protedction by the government.
The evictions have been conducted by uniformed armed men. In February, 2019 more than 500 families were brutally evicted from their ancestral land in Kyabisagazi 1 and Kyabisagazi 2 villages in Kigorobya sub county Hoima district.
Four toddlers were killed during the brutal eviction of the residents by armed men is uniforms similar to those of the Uganda Peoples Defense forces and the Anti-riot police.
The families were evicted from their ancestral land on February 13, 2019 when armed teams raided the village under the guise of tracking down people involved in subversive activities.
What had appeared to be a cordon and search operation turned into an action of eviction.
The contested land measuring 485 acres was at the center of a dispute between Edgar Agaba, a businessman in Hoima town and more than 500 families.
To date the evicted people, have never received any help from the government yet they are landless and most are said to have resorted to living with their relatives in various parts of the country.
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