UGANDA, Wakiso | Real Muloodi News | Police and the State House Anti-Corruption Unit are investigating a case in which 10 people allegedly acquired titles by fraudulent means on land owned by the National Social Security Fund-NSSF in Lubowa.
Three of the suspects were remanded to Kitalya government prison until November 18. The accused, Muhammad Kityo Lubowa, 48, Moses Bogere, 51, Patrick Onyango, 39, denied all charges against them.
It is alleged that in 2019, Muhammad Kityo Lubowa, Moses Bogere, Betty Namanya and Daphine Nakanwagi, applied for freehold titles on seven acres of land in Lubowa, claiming to have inherited bibanja interests on the land from their parents.
Investigations by Col Edith Nakalema’s State House Anti-Corruption Unit revealed the accused hired a private surveyor, Patrick Onyango, an unregistered surveyor, to unlawfully survey the land in question and get titles overlapping NSSF’s titles.
The prosecution alleges the accused knew precisely what they were doing. In 2019, at the office of the Registrar of titles at Wakiso Ministerial Zonal Offices in Wakiso District, Namanya, Bogere, Nakanwagi, and Lubowa falsified documents to apply for the conversion from customary tenure to freehold titles of the land in question.
The four persons are investigated jointly with Onyango and five other people on accusations of forgery, uttering false documents, obtaining registration by false pretence and conspiracy to commit a felony.
The other suspects include Shaban Kawooya, Steven Mayega, Leonald Kabonge, Damalie Kabenge alias Nakigozi Damalie, and Sarah Nalongo Namukasa.
The charges against them reveal the accused pretended to own the land in Lubowa and thus falsified registration documents for the freehold tenure application.
Between 2015 and 2019, Patrick Onyango (the purported surveyor) forged a Job Record Jacket (JRJ), saying he surveyed the Lubowa land under the supervision of Ssembajjwe Henry, a registered surveyor.
Betty Nakamya, the former Minister of Lands, brought the matter to Col Nakalema.
“This is a case of double titling of land without adequate due diligence, one of the serious challenges my ministry is struggling with,” Honourable Nakamya stated in a letter to Col Nakalema.
About the Land
Between 2003 and 2018, NSSF acquired 600 acres of land in Lubowa, comprising Kyadondo Block 269 (the disputed land).
NSSF got part of the land through a debt swap from National Housing and Construction Company Limited (NHCC), and they bought the rest from Uganda Company Holdings Limited. NSSF is legally registered as the holder of the land.
In the letter to Col Nakalema, Betty Nakamya wrote, “perhaps what is most glaring is that NSSF claims to have bought the freehold interest in 2003 from Uganda Company Holdings Limited, a foreign company prohibited by law to hold freehold proprietary interest inland, in effect Uganda Company Holdings Limited had no valid title in freehold to pass onto NSSF.”
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