UGANDA, Mukono | Real Muloodi news | Rev Mikka Lukwago, the parish priest of Kisowera Church of Uganda in Mukono district, survived a lynching attempt last week by an angry mob who accused him of hatching plans to evict them from their land. The priest claims the land to be church land.
The contested land is 151 acres, and covers over two villages, Kisowera and Muduuma. In 1921, the late Ham Mukasa donated the land to the Church of Uganda, Mukono diocese.
Rev Lukwago was trying to stop Badru Musoke, a resident at Muduuma village, from bolstering his family’s ancestral graveyard using cement, causing an alarm. Residents then surrounded the priest, threatening to beat him and burn his car. Fortunately for him, officers attached to the Mukono Police Division reached the scene on time to rescue him.
Commander Ismael Kifudde, Mukono Divisional Police, said they arrested five residents involved in the fracas to help police scrutinize the matter.
Several residents of Muduuma village have accused Rev Lukwago of mistreating and harassing them with issues concerning their land. The priest has stopped them from developing the land, despite the residents being bonafide bibanja owners for over 30 years.
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Judith Nabakooba, recently stopped land evictions during the COVID-19 lockdown.
According to Badru Musoke, Rev Lukwago is forcing the residents to surrender their land, yet it is where they get their food as farmers and built their shelters for decades.
Harriet Nansamba, another Kisowera resident, says the church ignores the right path of faith but pursues earthly gains that have increased their greed for land.
Derrick Kaddu, the Mukono Diocesan spokesperson (DS), says the diocese condemned the residents of Kisowera from threatening servants of God. The DS urged the residents to stop mob justice instead, come out and speak about land peacefully.
The Diocesan bishop James William Ssebaggala in his summons regularly preaches against grabbing of church land. According to the Bishop, grabbing church land is common, especially in the district of Mukono, Buikwe and Kayunga.
In 2016, the former Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali, with 38 bishops, survived being lynched by a mob while touring the land in Ntawo-Muzingo village in Mukono municipality. The mob threatened to burn their bus, forcing the bishops to flee to safety.
READ MORE LIKE THIS:
