Museveni defends Nabakooba’s appointment as lands minister

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has defended the appointment of former Mityana Woman Member of Parliament, Judith Nabakooba as Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

In his new Cabinet announced on Tuesday, Museveni appointed Nabakooba as Lands Minister replacing Beti Olive Kamya.

Nabakooba, formerly serving as Minister of Information, Communication and Technology lost her seat as Mityana Woman MP in the 2021 general election to the opposition National Unity Platform-NUP candidate Joyce Bagala.

“Regarding the Land Fund and strictness in the land law…that is why, if you see in the new government, I proposed the name of Hon. Judith Nabakooba because that girl was fighting land grabbers in Mityana,” Museveni said.

He was speaking at the 32nd Heroes Day Anniversary ceremony at Kololo Independence Grounds.

Nabakooba and other appointed Ministers are scheduled to be vetted by Parliament’s Appointment Committee before taking office.

Museveni says he is confident that Nabakooba will help the government resolve the issue of land evictions in the country.

Before joining active politics in June 2015, Nabaakoba served in the Uganda Police Force as Police Spokesperson from 2011 until 2015. She also served as secretary to Exodus Saving and Credit Cooperative Society.

In the 2016 elections, she was elected Mityana District Woman MP. In December 2019, she was appointed as Minister of ICT replacing Frank Tumwebaze who had been transferred to the Ministry of Gender.

Before the 2021 general polls, Nabakooba who hails from a region that posts the highest land-related cases and forceful evictions has been vocal on land issues in her home district especially in Kikandwa sub-county.

Days before Nabakooba’s appointment as the Minister for Lands, a section of women in Mityana together with Mityana District Women Council presented her an award in appreciation for her selflessness.

Among the issues raised by the women was her involvement in improving health services in the district. This was in addition to fighting for the land interests of several people who were facing eviction.

Her appointment has since excited residents of Mityana. Nathan Bisaso, Mityana district councillor says they have high hopes that Nabakooba will use her new appointment to fight for the interest of the poor as far as land matters are concerned.

Bisaso says that even before the appointment, Nabakooba was vocal in fighting for land matters.

Agnes Kawooya, a resident of Mityana also appealed to Nabakooba to use her new appointment when approved to fight injustices that have been side-lining women from owning or inheriting land from their fathers and husbands.

Ronald Kabuye, also a resident of Kalangalo in Mityana says that Nabakooba’s appointment in the lands sector is to further enable her to fulfil her wishes for the sector.

Once approved by the appointments committee, Nabakooba will have a task to deliver President Museveni’s targets on land matters. For a long time, Museveni has had an urge to solve the question of endless land wrangles and rampant evictions.

While meeting NRM party MPs-elect during their retreat at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwazi, Museveni noted that he was rooting for fundamental changes to dismantle the old barbaric land laws.

Museveni noted that during this term, his government will use the Bamugeremire report on land matters to cure both current and historical land problems which have existed since the colonial era citing the Mailo land that the British gave to chiefs and their collaborators in areas of Buganda and Bunyoro.

This will be an uphill task to Nabakooba, a Muganda, given the fact that some of the expected reviews are targeting the Mailo land tenure.

******

URN