UGANDA, Kayunga | Real Muloodi News | After a six-year wait, 800 tenants in Kitimbwa Sub-County, Kayunga District have finally received land titles from the government.
The move aims to strengthen the security of tenure for the tenants who have been living in fear of eviction from the land they have occupied for decades.
The land is part of the 10,000-acre public land that had been sold to Kayunga Sugar Works Ltd, a subsidiary of Madhvani Group of Companies, to pave the way for sugarcane growing.
Teopista Nakamya, a resident of Bulawula A village, faced eviction from her two-acre piece of land a decade ago. As a widow and mother of six children who is a peasant farmer, Ms Nakamya was contemplating where to relocate her family when President Museveni came to the area to campaign during the 2016 presidential elections. The president was informed about the pending eviction of over 20,000 residents.
The then Kayunga District Chairperson, Mr Steven Dagada, had also learnt about the illegal sale of the land to the sugar company and cancelled the deal.
He also directed that the partial payment money the buyer had paid be refunded to him.
When the affected tenants through their local leaders informed the President about the fears that they would be chased away from their land anytime, he directed the Ministry of Lands to process freehold land titles for the over 20,000 tenants.
Ms Nakamya is one among the many tenants whose wish came to materialise on April 27, when the government finally fulfilled the presidential pledge and handed over the titles to them as a way of strengthening their security of tenure on the land.
During a ceremony held at Nkokonjeru Primary School in Kitimbwa Sub-County and presided over by Ms Hadijah Namyalo, the Head of the Office of the National Chairman, who represented President Museveni, a total of 800 land titles were handed over to the enthusiastic beneficiaries.
In her address, Ms Namyalo cautioned the recipients against using the titles as collateral to get loans from money lenders.
She revealed that although some politicians in the district were fighting the programme, the President made sure the tenants received their titles to end land wrangles in the district.
The State Minister for Lands, Sam Mayanja, warned district land boards in the Buganda region against returning land to the Buganda Kingdom noting that such property should be under the custodian of district land boards.
Kayunga is a hotbed of land wrangles, especially in the cattle-corridor areas of Bbaale and Galilaya sub-counties. Several residents have lost their lives and property in land-related wrangles.
In 2012, President Museveni intervened to end the wrangles, but the situation persisted. Thus, the State Minister for Lands, Ms Persis Namuganza, initiated the project in 2017 targeting 20,000 locals in the sub-counties of Kitimbwa and Kayonza.
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