The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kabarole, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kabarole district authorities have petitioned the president’s office over land grabbing by purported state house agents. This stems from the issuance of a land title on plots 20-22 at Millane road in Kabundaire Central division Fort Portal, to “Gun paper industries” by the area lands office.
According to the authorities, the land in question belongs to the Uganda Lands commission, and Kabarole district is the sitting tenant. Kabarole district officials were shocked to learn that Gun paper industries had processed and received a title for the same land in May 2021 without consulting the district as sitting tenants.
Richard Rwabuhinga, the Kabarole LC V chairperson says that the district had put in formal requests for a title of the land from the Uganda Land Commission in vain.
“We have since 2014 put in our requests formerly but under unclear circumstances, we have all along been ignored. We have even been sending in reminders, when my CAO Sanyu Phiona insisted and put in the recent request on my instructions, it earned her a very quick transfer to another district,” Rwabuhinga added.
Rwabuhinga says that they received documents purportedly written by the legal advisor to the president, Aidah Tegeki on May 10th, 2021, claiming that the regional lands office in Fort Portal was frustrating the effort of the directors of ‘Gun Paper Industries’ to receive the requested land title under unclear circumstances.
“Ngurra and co advocates Attorneys & legal consultants” also wrote another letter on behalf of “Gun Paper industries” on August 18th, 2021 urging Kabarole district to start paying allegiance to the “Gun papers industries”, which is jointly owned by Karugaba Jimmy and Karugaba Miriam or else they risk being charged with trespass.
“It has come to the notice of our client that several people who are not known to its management are leaving on its land mentioned in the above-captioned matter and have never introduced themselves to our client who is a registered proprietor of the said land and sometime in 2010, a notice was given to you which you choose to ignore……”, reads the document.
Adding that “…be informed and for the avoidance of any doubt, that our client doesn’t intend to arbitrarily evict anybody on its land but would like to ensure those who are currently staying and utilizing the land should be clearly known to its agents so as to have a clear and cordial relationship.” Now, Rwabuhinga says that the district recently resolved to petition the president over the contested land.
Timothy Ruhweza, the speaker of Kabarole district told URN that, “We have been hearing about land grabbing in various areas across the country and took the matters lightly. But this is a clear manifestation that the land grabbers using the president’s office are here with us.”
Adding that, “We have instructed the district chairperson as a council to write to the office of the president since the documents we received lately are bearing the signature of his purported legal team from the state house. We also want to investigate the input of the district lands officer Alinda Peter, the Fort Portal city physical planning committee especially the deputy city clerk Rusoke, John Bosco, and the acting deputy physical planner Olivia Bawhayo concerning the fraud exercised during the issuance of the title,” Ruweheza stated.
Alinda has since denied any involvement in the matter, saying that he never appended his signature on the said transaction. Ronald Asaba, the Busoro sub-county LC V councilor wants the custodian of the district land to be put aside for further investigations on how “Gun paper Industries” processed the title of the district land without his notice.
Richard Rwabuhinga, the Kabarole LC V chairperson says that their legal team is already working on placing a caveat on the land.
Our reporter tried to contact “Gun Paper industries” in vain as the phone contacts couldn’t be reached. Julian Ayesiga, the Kabarole Resident District Commissioner says that she is following the matter closely and will soon make a report of the proceedings and forward it to the office of the president.
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