Time for Uganda’s scientists to focus on splitting atoms to manufacture land

COMMENT | Alfred Geresom Musamali | Uganda’s atomic scientists and other related professionals should now probably focus on splitting atoms to manufacture land. This has been the unsuccessful call by many concerned parties since 1986. The matter is now more urgent than ever – because, as conflicts surrounding land ownership and administration during the first seven months of 2023 show, the country will only be saved by intervention of the Almighty God if the atomic scientists do not somehow split atoms to create more land.

Historically, scientific discovery has always been in numerous quests to solve society’s challenges. And, indeed, currently, in Uganda the societal challenge is how to manufacture that amount of land that will satisfy greedy chaps, glut the market, lead to a fall in prices and eradicate conflict.

Helpless General Museveni’s Land Grabbed in Sembabule by Daring Squatters

For instance, daring peasants in Sembabule district have grabbed parts of a 200-acre chunk of land bought by General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibahaburwa out of his very hard earned money. The helpless, law abiding General Museveni was not too long ago reported to have been awaiting a committee chaired by one William Rudunyonyoli, who witnessed the purchase of the land in 1997, “to carry out fresh boundary opening, register all sitting tenants and submit a report to the district security committee”. Records show that General Museveni bought the land from Faustine Ntambara and donated part of it to the community of Luntuku in Kawanda sub-county for construction of a technical institute. The land is on Block 176, Plot 4, 6 and 46 in Luntuku Parish and on Block 83, Plot 23 in Sembabule Town Council. General Museveni also constructed on Block 83 a primary school named after Amos Kaguta, his late father. Now Luntuku Technical Institute is hard pressed to deny suspicion that it connived to sell the land, saying that, instead, it hires out the land to raise money for the institute although there are some challenges in that process of hiring out.

One of the individuals who is suspected to have encroached on the land first hired five acres for five years but reportedly forged the agreement to read 35 years. However, area woman councilor Jolly Kasande is quoted to have said land grabbers start by pretending to look for land to hire for cultivation then connive with corrupt government official to issue them with titles and, before the original buyer knows it, they have built permanent houses all over the place.

Government in Running Battles with Sango Bay Squatters

Whenever I think of Sango Bay, I remember former Hon Joshua Wakholi, the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Bugisu in the first post-independence Parliament. Wakholi was also public service and cabinet affairs minister in the first government under Dr Apollo Milton Obote. When Obote was overthrown by Idi Amin, Wakholi fled to Tanzania but in September 1972 returned with others (including now General Museveni) to try to win back power. While the Museveni team took the route through Isingiro to Mbarara, the Wakholi group entered Uganda around Mutukula in an attempt to reach Rakai, Kyotera and Masaka by fringing on the shores of Lake Victoria around Sango Bay. But the Amin forces overwhelmed Wakholi’s rugtag invaders and, not even knowing the geography well, Wakholi got lost in the Sango Bay sugar plantations. He was eventually captured and killed. To date we, Wakholi’s relatives from Bugisu, are still looking for his remains in order to give them a descent burial.

But now the running battles on the former sugar estate in Sango Bay are between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and 10,000 settlers – among them suspected Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania nationals. GoU claims ownership of the land and wishes to give it to an oil palm developer but all the settlers insist that they have land titles or other proof of legal ownership and that, therefore, they must be adequately compensated in advance before they vacate. However, GoU insists that it only knows 300 settlers who it is prepared to compensate and that the rest are illegal squatters. So, all the short and tall local defence militia, police officers and army soldiers alike were deployed to try to evict the illegal squaters not too long ago ago. Oba batuuka wa (I wonder how far they have gone)?

Management Graduate Moses Ayebare Embattled in Kashari

Meanwhile, the household of my fellow Uganda Management Institute (UMI) Master of Management Studies (MMS) Intake 36 alumni Moses Ayebare is among the 200 other households facing eviction from Bukiro Ward, Nyakayojo village in Bwizibwera, Rwanyamabare, Mbarara district. Jennifer Kamushoko, the wife of the late George William Kamushoko, has appealed to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) and the Lands minister to investigate Mbarara district lands office over suspected fraudulent transactions on the land now occupied by Ayebare and others. The land formerly comprised Kashari Block 19 Plot 119 and measured 6880 hectares. Its title was first issued to the late Veronica Nyamunshunju on November 25^th, 1935. Jennifer Kamushoko, a daughter-in-law of Nyamunshunju, became administrator of the estate in 2020 after the death of her husband George Kamushoko, a son of Nyamunshunju. Jennifer recently claimed to have learnt that a group of strangers lead by Ayebare were illegally squatting on the land but Ayebare points out that that was because Jeniffer had learnt that the surrounding areas were getting developed.

“Nyamushunju sold much of her land to various people and gave away some to her relatives before she died. She even subdivided the title in 1992,” says Ayebare who is now chair of the committee defending their land, adding that whatever she left behind was sold by her son (George) before he too died.

“Since 2009, I have been buying my pieces from the people to whom she either sold or gave away. The entire Nyamunshunju-Kamumosho family had migrated to Mbarara (where there was relative development) but now that they have heard that Government is planning to upgrade the road from Bwizibwera to Buhweju, they have sneaked back to apply for a special land title over the lands,” Ayebare added.  Stay tuned for the fireworks.

Conflict in Namasale Town Council Finally Makes News Headlines for Amolatar District

In the Lake Kyoga shores town council of Namasale in Amolatar, the district that hardly ever makes it to the news headlines, a woman has caused a stir by attempting to reclaim an 100-acre piece of land from which her family fled over 40 years ago. Several grass-thatched huts in one Bungu town council cell homestead whose members supported Juliet Katushabe, the claimant, were burnt in the confusion. Katushabe is the daughter and administrator of the estate of her late father Nafutali Kawaki, whose name does not sound indigenous – but, anyway, in a country whose freedom of movement and settlement is guaranteed. Ebyo nabyo biry’eyo (those are also there).

Eastern Uganda Got a Ghost District, Complete with District Headquarters and Imaginary Land on Sale

If the chaps in Sembabule, Kashari, Amolatar or wherever thought they were experts, they have been outdone by their eight colleagues who in their dreams created their own entire Kiptui ghost district, complete with a district headquarters which they planted in eastern Uganda. Rather than awake from their dream, thought, the somnambulist fraudsters then started selling each acre of their imaginary land at Uganda Shillings One Hundred Thousands Only (UGX100,000) – about US$40. But they only receipted Uganda Shillings Twenty Thousand Only (UGX20,000) and did not even bother to indicate on the entries that there was any balance to still be paid. They were reportedly perfecting their art of outcompeting each other in cheating their own business when Police rounded them up at the beginning of July. Whether remanded or convicted or not, I hope they have by are by now discovering the geography of a real Namalu Prison Farm in Karamoja, about 60 kilometers north of their imaginary district headquarters.

Bugisu Educational Institutions are in Trouble

It was just a question of time before the SHACU did something about all suspected land crooks. In  Mbale, a businessman allegedly grabbed some chunk of land belonging to government aided Umar and Yumbe Primary School. Enraged parents are said to have withdrawn in protest their pupils from the now landless school, leaving the salaried teachers stranded with their dusters, chalk, blackboards, textbooks, time bells, “tickler” canes and other basic education paraphernalia.

The educational institutions in Bugisu that have those land disputes include Bubulo Girls School. Former Bubulo Girls’ student Annet Webombesa wrote to the Church of Uganda saying, “…the Board (of Governors) is full of land brokers and investors than people with heart for school growth”. The dispute originates from the construction of the Bumbobi (near Mbale City) to Lwakhakha Road (on Kenya border in Namisindwa district) where the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) found it necessary to short cut through the school compound and adequately compensate the school. Ebyadilira biwanvu (the rest is a long story).

Very Prominent Lawyers Sucked into the Confusion

Even prominent people from the learned fraternity have fallen victims of manipulations. Justice Stephen Kavuma is, for instance, a former Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda. Justice Kavuma may as well even have a military or other security background, having been state minister for defence around 1990. But one media report says “a group of fearless land dealers and brokers managed to get” Kavuma “to part with his hard-earned UGX1.7bn (yes, billion in case you think I meant UGX1.7million!) for land which they never delivered. Media-shy John Okware, the owner of Rydah Hotel in Seeta, is said to have been equally “duped to part with UGX1.5bn in return for land which was never passed on. Both Kavuma and Okware’s land was along the road to Katosi, south of Mukono Municipal Council.

Neither are the perpetrators of the manipulation young and reckless fellows likely to blow up their earnings in bars, night clubs and lodges. Buganda Road Magistrate’s Court in Kampala in mid-2023 fined city lawyer Kwesiga Bateyo (aged 65) UGX25m then convicted land brokers Salongo George William Kaggwa (aged 64) and Chrispus Ssali (aged 41) to ten years’ imprisonment over fraud involving land worth UGX330m.

Makerere University Trains Atomic Physists but Still Cannot Create Land

I would, however, not have brought out this endless litany of land disputes if I was not thinking about Makerere University, my multiple alma matta between 1982 and 2007 – forget about the other master’s course(s) I did not complete in between! Makerere has been in land disputes for as long as I have been around – that is, for over sixty years. There has been a long-running dispute with some chaps in Katanga Valley. At the end of July 2023, very respected Bush War traditional medicine man Abdul Nadduli stormed State House to explain that he thought he had solved Makerere’s Katanga Valley land problems when he was state minister a number of years ago and was surprised that they still persists. July 2023 was also about the time when the Church of Uganda (CoU) was threatening to storm court again, over a disputed piece of land between the College of Veterinary Medicine bla bla. By the time we went to press, the university had not got around to convincing or compelling atomic scientists it has produced over those many years to create more land so that they leave the people of God at the CoU alone. And, as expected, the answers that the scientists rebuttle with are that “matter can neither be created nor destroyed”. Kati, bili basoma byaki (now for what did they study those difficult causes)?

Land conflicts in General Museveni’s Context

General Museveni is quoted to have said (even while Sembabule squatters were grabbing the land bought through his own hard earned cash!) that “Science is the prima of society. We need to focus on it. There is no way we can fail to fund sciences but then you bring SWASA (Social Work and Social Administration), Conflict Resolution, Women Studies, and you are studying women for three years and getting a degree in women! then what?”

Okay, Makerere University atomic scientists and related professionals – please, either split atoms to create more land or concede that certain things are better handled by equally well paid SWASA chaps for the sake of peace!

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The author is Founding Director of Vicnam International Communications Ltd, a private firm of communications, public relations and information management consultants. He specialises in the Proofreading and General Editing (PAGE) of documents and can be contacted by Tel: (+256)752-649519 and by Email: agmusamali@hotmail.com.