Nabakooba Orders Cancellation of Buikwe Land Titles, Directs Boundary Opening

Lands minister Judith Nabakooba has directed the Buikwe district land board to cancel all land titles that were issued to three persons on land at Kikondo cell in Njeru municipality.

The trio include Nicholas Byonanebye, Moses Buyondo, and Irene Birah Nakkungu whose land measures 74 acres, 44 acres, and 30 acres respectively. It is a freehold sited on Kyaggwe Block 323 according to the information in the lands ministry’s system.

Nabakooba in a meeting on October 18 in Buikwe noted that the action of multiple titling of land is unlawful and ordered the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Area Land Committee and the District land Board to do fresh boundary opening on the contested land.
“Cancel the land titles and write a letter to the ministry so that the registrar makes changes in the documents. I am going to write to the State House Anti-corruption and the Police Land Protection Unit to find out who was behind this so that they account for violating the law,” she said.

The minister also gave the RDC and the Chairperson of the District Land Board two weeks to make research on the land and write a report to her ministry for a way forward.
She encouraged residents to embrace government programs especially the Parish Development Model (PDM) aimed at elevating the living standards of the grass roots and warned them against giving money to the PDM leaders in the form of bribery.
“If you bribe any one, it is your problem because at the end of three years, you have to pay the whole Shs1 million,” she warned.

Mr Bruhan Mulongo, the Kikondo cell chairperson, revealed that the situation in his area escalated two years ago when land occupants who were interested in getting titles were shocked to find that the land was already taken by the people not known in the area and wondering how they got the titles on their land.
“This area has more than 20,000 people and if they are to evict us, where are we going to go? We thank the minister for visiting our community to solve our issue,” he said.

Diana Mutasingwa, the Buikwe District Woman Member of Parliament who pushed for the intervention of the minister in her area land issues applauded Nabakooba for shining a ray of hope to the residents.
“These people have been fighting the fraudulent acquisition of land titles for their land they have settled on for so long. The land grabbers have been threatening eviction which we cannot accept,” she told the minister.

Mr Hakim Kirigwa, the Deputy RDC assured the lands minister that he is going to act immediately and work together with the District Land Board and the Areal Land Committee to ensure that her directives are executed.