URC, army taskforce to recover railway land

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Railways Corporation has said that a joint security taskforce comprising of Uganda Railways, the military and police has been set up to recover encroached railway land and ensure the exit of encroachers.

According to the managing director Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) Stanley Sendegeya, the land belonging to Uganda Railways is not secure, and they are in the process of recovering all the land occupied illegally whether people have titles or not.

Other members of the joint taskforce are the Districts Internal Security Officers, Resident District Commissioners (RDCs), and Resident City Commissioners (RCCs) among others.

Most of the railway land including the Port bell station, Nsambya, Uganda Railways land in Nalukolongo, railway land in Luzira, Mukono, Jinja and several others have been occupied illegally with many of the occupants having illegal titles.

In an interview with Sendegeya, he said that everyone who has encroached on the Uganda Railways land has been notified and they are not expected to be on the railway line and land on March 31st 2022.

He says that during this time, they plan to start engaging encroachers by telling them to vacate the land. He says the joint force which has been formed is going to manage the exit, and those who don’t exit will be forcefully evicted.

Sendegeya says that it does not matter what name appears on the title, but as long as the title was got without the consent of Uganda Railways, this will be reclaimed.

He says that a few people will be compensated, while the rest will be evicted if they do not exit. Sendegeya says that they want to handle the issues of the land once and for all, and this should not be delayed at any cost.

He says some entities like hotels, factories which are on the railway land will be demolished since they are illegally in the railway land, and the team is supposed to help in this process.

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