UGANDA, Wakiso | Real Muloodi News | Several residents evicted from the Lubigi wetland catchment area on the outskirts of Kampala have voiced their claims of legal ownership. The evictions, carried out by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in recent weeks, have left many of the evictees homeless, waiting for government compensation.
The Lubigi Evictees, some of whom had settled in the area for decades, argue that they acquired the land legally.
According to Ms Teopista Kaweesa, a 75-year-old resident of Nansana West II A, the encroachment on the Lubigi wetland began after the National Resistance Army (NRA) Bush War of 1981-1986, which brought President Yoweri Museveni to power.
Kaweesa, who has lived in the area since the 1960s, recalled, “It was a wetland full of papyrus stretching from Bwaise towards Busega.
The land originally belonged to the Buganda Kingdom, and there were fewer than 10 residents when I settled here.”
She explained that landowners constructed houses on dry land along Hoima Road and used the wetland for agriculture.
As the NRA war escalated, many residents fled the area for safety. After the war, when residents returned, they found that the older generation had died, leaving their children to inherit and sell the land to brokers.
These brokers allegedly began backfilling the wetland and blocking water channels, which led to flooding during rains.
Ms Kaweesa noted that “the subdivision of the land into plots for sale in the early 1990s led to the construction of houses on the plots, and these new occupants invited more people to buy plots in the area.”
By 2004, when government projects like the Northern Bypass began, Lubigi was already heavily occupied. Mr Isaac Kanyike Ssagala, a 60-year-old resident of Nansana, said that the construction of the Northern Bypass contributed to flooding in the encroached areas.
“Before the bypass, accessibility was a challenge, but it attracted more encroachers after its completion,” he said.
Mr. Ssagala also mentioned that before the construction of a power line through Lubigi, the affected residents were compensated.
However, many returned after some years and resold their plots to new buyers, leading to the construction of houses under the utility line.
Ms. Zulaikah Kyobijja, a resident of Nansana South II, shared the story of her 95-year-old mother, Hadijjah Najjemba, who had lived on the land for more than 70 years.
“We are among the first families to settle in Lubigi,” Kyobijja said. She questioned why the Buganda Land Board had been collecting nominal ground rent (busuulu) despite knowing the land was in a wetland. “We have receipts that show Buganda was soliciting money from us even though the land is in a gazetted swamp,” she added.
However, Mr Israel Kazibwe Kitooke, the spokesperson for the Buganda Kingdom, stated that the land belongs to the Buganda Kingdom but is under NEMA’s supervision since it is a wetland.
“NEMA has authority over all swamps and other fragile ecosystems in the country,” he said.
The Lubigi Evictees continue to await government action, with many spending nights in the cold as they seek compensation.
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