UGANDA, Kyankwanzi | Real Muloodi News | Over 1,000 households in Kyankwanzi District are living in fear of being evicted from their ancestral lands in Kyerere North, Kyerere East, Kiyuni Central, Kiryajobyo West, and Kibanda.
Residents of these areas are at odds with the widow of the late Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, Linda Nyakairima. They claim Nyakairima has repeatedly threatened them with forcible evacuation.
They are accusing her of illegally obtaining a title to around 5 square kilometres of land where they say they have lived since the 1940s, and are baffled at how the late Aronda’s family is claiming it.
Two weeks ago, over 30 troops were assigned to secure the disputed piece of land with over ten graders and excavators to clear the land, which damaged the garden crops cultivated by the locals. Access to the land was restricted.
The enraged villagers responded by blocking all roads to the land with tree branches, logs, and stones, among other things, obstructing business affairs for many hours.
Racheal Kawala, the Wamala Region Police Spokesperson, hurried to the region after getting word that the angry people had blocked the Nkoko-Kiboga route.
According to Kawala, the land dispute between the late Aronda Nyakairima’s family and the people has been ongoing for a long time. She says the police have no eviction orders in the area.
“This land conflict has been on for so long and currently we don’t have any court order with us allowing any eviction to take place. We are also seeing what is taking place without our consent. We only rushed there to quell down the protest where the aggrieved residents had blocked the road not allowing anyone to go through,” said Kawala.
Kyerere North village resident, Godfrey Walakira, aged 60, wants the government to act and examine how Linda Nyakairima obtained the land title.
Captain George Ssenyonyi, a retired officer born in 1951, believes the atmosphere is severe because people are hungry. He wants the Prime Minister’s Office to step in and stop the eviction right away.
Hannington Nsibirwa, aged 50, a Kiyuni central native, claims that graders have ruined many acres of his banana plantation. He wants the government to consider how troops collaborated with the late Aronda’s widow to take their farm forcibly.
The LCIII Chairperson of Kyankwanzi District, Leosam Sebalunzi, was concerned about how the late Aronda Nyakairima’s family got the land without the leaders’ approval. He said that troops intimidated the families when they asked them to produce the land title.
Linda Nyakairima went before the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters in 2018 and gave a testimony.
The Chairperson of the Commission, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, called her for questioning over the plot of land that her late husband had allegedly purchased.
The commission then received complaints from numerous Kiboga District families forced to leave their land that Aronda wished to buy for private investment.
On March 9, 1931, the land was certified as a private mailo property in the name of the deceased Matayo Kidimbo Mpanga.
However, before Mpanga’s grandson Ibrahim Lumu challenged the sale, the late Gen. Aronda allegedly paid Gideon Kibirango, who claimed to be the valid owner of the land.
Linda Nyakairima was unreachable for a comment.
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