By Iryn Nandawula
State Lands Minister Parcis Namuganza, who on Tuesday was accused of improper conduct by a group of people from Mubende, has spoken out furiously claiming the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led land inquiry has been hijacked by crooks (she called them abafere). Appearing as witnesses on Tuesday, Herman Byakatonda and Hussein Shambe accused Namuganza and Mubende woman MP Benny Namugwanya of being biased in favor of Milly Naava Namutebi, Henry Kaaya and Lule Musoke (all of them Mailo land owners) with whom they are disputing over ownership of the 3 square mile (1,920 acres) land. The land is located in Kitule Parish Butologo Sub County Kasanda Mubende district. The matter was reported to the Commission by residents who live on the land claiming Naava & Co wanted to evict them working with some UPDF officers on grounds they are aliens who improperly settled on the land. Elected Mudende leaders, especially MPs, sided with the threatened aliens and threw their weight behind the petition. Maj Joseph Kakooza, in whose constituency the land falls, has been very supportive of the petition because, being a politician, he can’t antagonize numbers. Closely working with him is Butologo Sub County councilor Christopher Barongo who the Naava group accuse of curiously collecting money from residents ostensibly to rectify their tenure on the land. Namugwanya, just like Simeo Nsubuga who represents the other Kasanda, was initially behind the petition but changed on getting facts alternative to what she thought was the case. In fact the Entebbe State House meeting, during which Byakatonda accused Namuganza of trying to dupe the President to pay Shs4bn as compensation for the 1 square mile Naava & Co (the titled land lords) are willing to forfeit for the bibanja holders to settle, was granted by the President after Namugwanya cried out in cabinet meetings. Her outcry to the President during cabinet meetings was follow up to a petition area MPs gave the President during a meeting at the area State Lodge when he visited as part of his land sensitization radio tours. The MPs raised issues accusing mostly the army men and tycoons like Abid Alam of using their influential positions to disposes the poor of their land. The MPs told Museveni the problem was wide spread. In that State Lodge meeting, Namuganza was in attendance as well as the other area leaders like the RDC, DPC etc. After the meeting, because the local police leadership was accused of bias, Museveni directed then IGP Kale Kayihura to return to Mubende and sort out the rest of the problem and boost the area security. Kayihura returned with Namuganza and his fact-finding mission resulted into area police leaders being transferred. They were replaced and more neutral officers deployed. During their Tuesday appearance, Shambe and Byakatonda claimed that by siding with Naava, Namuganza and Namugwanya were trying to sideline them from partaking of the Shs4bn that was tentatively tabled to the President as the amount that ought to be paid from the land fund to atone the loss the original landlords have incurred as a result of Bibanja holders getting settled on the land over the years.
NAMUGANZA SPEAKS;
The outspoken minister on Wednesday addressed reporters in her officer and set the record straight.
She said during the Entebbe meeting, parties made their case but the President remained unable to determine who to believe and instead referred the matter to UBOS to write him a report advising on the authenticity of land occupiers that the Naava group claim to have come from Rwanda and DR Congo and therefore not eligible for compensation. Museveni also suggested verification of these encroachers basing on records NIRA generated and kept as a result of the national ID-issuing exercise. Apparently it’s these State House teams Byakatonda referred to during his appearance on Tuesday (saying they had visited Mubende and spoken to residents) are the ones doing the investigations for the President. Renowned for being recklessly truthful, Namuganza told reporters that this is the report on which the President will depend to determine the justification for Naava and other landlords to claim Shs4bn as compensation. Namuganza had in her office Mzee Lule Musoke and Henry Kaaya who Byakatonda and Shambe dismissed as Bafere (false). The two old men, who Namuganza says are the registered owners of the land (3 square miles) according to her ministry records, explained to reporters that Naava is their granddaughter because their sister the late Edith Nakabugo mothered her (Naava’s) mum. Nakabugo had a number of children including Shambe who they said is a brother to Naava’s mother. They explained the land originally belonged to Zakaria Kikonyogo, their paternal grandfather. Kikonyogo’s son fathered Kaaya, Musoke, Nakabugo and other siblings. Kaaya A Mamba clan leader told reporters that he is the heir of Kikonyogo (his grandfather a former Kabaka chief) having been installed in 1969. He said there are three administrators on the Kikonyogo estate in whose favor valid letters of administration were issued and these are himself (Kaaya), Musoke and Nakabugo (deceased) whose interest now is being represented by Naava, their maternal relative. Shambe is Nakabugo’s son who they said dubiously got a title registered in his name. They fault city lawyer Mukiibi Sentamu for aiding this curious process and they have since reported him to Law Council for disciplinary action. We have seen Law Council correspondences in which Mukiibi (of C Mukiibi Sentamu & Co Advocates) explains himself against accusations of improper conduct. It’s registered as LCD 16/2018. The same Mukiibi also had earlier on written to Dr. Douglas Singiza the Secretary to the Commission of inquiry.
BIASED SINGIZA;
The two old men accused Singiza of bias and vowed to defy his summons to appear before the Commission. “He is biased and has been harassing us saying we are going to be arrested for taking the matter to the President. He maintains we are sham claimants to the land and believes Shambe’s title is genuine and that ours is fake. I asked him then why were you pleading with me to sign a document giving away 1 square mile if you know I have no claim to the land? Dr. Singiza is clearly biased and believes our adversaries are genuine and ourselves are sham yet the truth is the other way round. I will only speak to Justice Catherine because I’m certain about her impartiality but not Singiza. He brags being highly educated but I’m now doubting his qualifications. Who is he to detain me simply because I spoke to the President? Isn’t that our money they are spending on those hearings as taxpayers? Let him kill me if he so wishes but I’m not honoring those summons,” Lule Musoke told reporters. “If he is efficient why was he taking all this time to give priority to our complaint and call us? Why call us now after hearing the President has intervened?” He accused Singiza of working with vote-seeking politicians especially district councilor Christopher Barongo to dispute their claim to the land which is clearly genuine. “Why would they side with the Bafere who clearly have no genuine claim to the land well knowing that you can’t have such a say in land on your maternal side?” He said Singiza went as far as entertaining false claims that the trio had been exhuming bodies and levelling grave yards which isn’t true. “These are holes dug for tobacco drying purposes and he says these are graves we have been exhuming. Which sort of public official is this?” Musoke ranted on as Namuganza looked on. He was flanked by Henry Kaaya and their paternal grand daughter Sarah Bakulisa.
BACK TO NAMUGANZA;
The controversial said the trio’s predicament at the hands of Singiza was proof the commission has been hijacked by the very wrongdoers they are supposed to expose. This corroborated what Tamale Mirundi said last Monday when he said on his Monday Top Radio talk show that “that inquiry has been hijacked and there are three renowned land grabbers messing up everything.” In his usual “mafia-talk” style, Mirundi didn’t give much details but said “I know for a fact some powerful person planted them on Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.” In what risks to greatly degrade the credibility of the inquiry process, Namuganza told reporters that “a person like George Tinkamanyire shouldn’t have been a commissioner in the first place.” She said she recently aided aggrieved Banyoro, with land-related grievances against him, to directly petition the President highlighting some of the improper land transactions the ex-LC5 chairman was involved in his native Bunyoro sub region. “The petitioners clearly inform the President that this can’t be a judge in his own case; there is a lot they want to report to the commission against him but they can’t go far because the man is a commissioner.” Namuganza said as a result of this, Banyoro whose region notoriously has many land wrangles, don’t expect much. “But it’s not only Bunyoro. The entire country has been let down. They aren’t completing anything. They are jumping from one thing to another and Ugandans are bitter that land grabbers have continued harassing and evicting them even after reporting to the Commission. It’s actually a vote of no confidence in the Commission for people who reported to them first to turn round and seek the President’s direct involvement,” Namuganza said. “They purported to have investigated Mubende but nothing was concluded and this is why Hon Benny kept reporting in cabinet. They went to Nakaseke and failed. Hon Lutamaguzi ferried people to Parliament and the Speaker had to intervene. She directed the lands ministry to handle and when I went to Nakaseke with the former IGP to diffuse that situation, they became angry that we are undermining their work. There is a big problem in Kirangira Mukono and the President has been petitioned and has planned to go there himself soon. All this shows the public doesn’t trust this inquiry anymore. It’s sad they have been hijacked by the Bafere as this Mubende saga shows. How can you allow your commission to be used to paint the genuine land owners as the crooks and you praise the crooks for being witnesses? There is another issue in Hoima which they mishandled and a one Joshua Tibangwa has had to directly petition Gen Salim Saleh. Some of these are historical Fronasa fighters who are personally well known to Mzee and Gen Saleh.” Namuganza claimed there are land dealers who have clearly been implicated at previous inquiry sessions and wondered why they haven’t been tackled by the inquiry. She gave numerous examples of these. “I have been the biggest defender of that commission but not anymore. They have turned against me. Everybody is angry that they are taking too much money yet there isn’t value. Nobody is satisfied. There was excitement at first but since getting this extension, they are just making money and thinking they are too powerful. Does getting Shs52m per month mean you are above me a whole Minister of land? Do they want to think the ministry mandate no longer exists? They aren’t the ministry and the President is still in charge. He has a mandate of the people to whom he must account and nobody should be detained for taking his complaint to the President,” Namuganza said. She added: “The MPs were rightly very bitter the other day saying this costly exercise shouldn’t be prolonged and I think as Cabinet we must issue clear guidelines limiting the powers of this commission because people are beginning to assume they are a replacement to executive authority of this country.” She said that the fact that Simeo Nsubuga and Abid Alam recently drew pistols at each other is proof even in areas the commission purports to have done some work, more complications have been created rather than solved. “They thinkthis is a permanent job and this has made them over confident to begin crossing the red line. Who are you to come up saying the President has been duped. That man is too intelligent and too smart to be duped by these old people from Mubende and by the way these are his old comrades from FRONASA. The commission is very important in this country but can’t be above the President. He has unlimited power and can intervene in any matter anytime. That is why he is going to Mukono and will go to Mubende because he is concerned why his people continue to be evicted even after the Commission has intervened,” Namuganza said adding the Commission’s anger should be directed to Mubende area MPs like Simeo Nsubuga, Maj Kakooza and Benny Namugwanya who petitioned the president. “I was only assigned to follow up and that is what I’m doing.”For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
