UGANDA, Mukono | Real Muloodi News | Residents and local officials in Mukono are accusing land brokers of duping customers and duplicating their land titles.
According to William Odde, a resident of Nyenga Sub County in the Buikwe area, several land brokers hang around the Mukono land offices copying the data of clients to duplicate their land titles.
“These are the same people (dealers) who pretended to assist me in the process of acquiring a title. By the time I was about to complete the entire process, I was informed by land officers that there was another title produced with the same particulars weeks before. It is now coming to a full year, and the fake title has never been canceled,” Odde notes.
Joseph Ssebuuma, a resident of Kyabazaala in Ntunda Sub County, claims that after going through the necessary procedures, the land office refused to correct the inaccuracies on his title. Ssebuuma claims his land is in Ntunda, although the title shows it is in Nakisunga Sub County.
He is concerned about losing his land to scammers who have begun claiming ownership.
Local leaders and residents say the alliance of officers with land brokers is fueling land scandals and creating room for duplicating land titles.
According to Mukono Resident District Commissioner Fatumah Ndisaba, land brokers collaborate with security personnel and officials in the Mukono Ministry Zonal Land Offices to question persons attending land offices in order to dupe them.
She requests that the Mukono Office’s Principal Assistant Secretary, Doreen Tumushabe, simplify the operation of the land offices and the whole premises.
According to Denis Obbo, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, allegations of land brokers packing the land offices remain a concern.
According to Rev. Godfrey Sono, the Mukono Diocese Secretary for Lands, all processes leading to the encroachment of church land begin at land offices.
Here the grabbers secure copies of the original titles and use them to instil trust in their victims by pretending to have secured them from the rightful owners, specifically the details concerning church land.
He also claims that they have situations where the land offices have produced titles on church land.
To minimise land title detail theft, he urges citizens to avoid engaging with anyone outside of land offices.
On the problem of duplicate titles, Obbo claims that land offices encountered difficulties transitioning from the analogue system to the e-system, which allowed land grabbers to make multiple entries.
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