By Mulengera Reporters
Determined to mitigate land grabbing which cost him political victory in 2021 elections, and also determined to counter the likes of Buganda Caucus Chairman Muwanga Kivumbi who keep appearing on CBS radio to declare him Buganda’s hater and enemy number one, President Museveni has seemingly changed his approach on matters concerning Kabaka Mutebi’s region.
On Wednesday, the big man from Rwakitura personally travelled to Kiboga district’s Lwankonge village in the heart of Luwero triangle where his 5-year bush war was waged from. And while there,Gen Museveni personally intervened in a huge land wrangle between an elderly Muganda man called Badru Mwanje on one hand, and a youthful Munyankole man by the names of Patrick Ainebyona, a renowned businessman in the area, on the other.
The land in dispute measures 640 acres from which Ainebyona had recently forcefully evicted Mzee Mwanje while claiming the land belongs to his Principals, a group of departed Asians T/A Chikamchadi Shaar Ltd who became the registered feehold owners as early as 1932. The Asians returned and repossessed the same land in 1992 following their 1972 expulsion by Idi Amin. Then as of 1989, the same land got into the names of Peresika Nakayenga from whom Mzee Mwanje obtained it in 1999 and became a registered owner too.
Evidently, officials at the Lands Ministry have a lot to answer for because the two protagonists namely Mwanje and the departed Asians, as represented by Ainebyona, both have titles relating to the same land. Ainebyona rode on the boundaries-opening exercise that was ongoing recently to arbitrarily evict Mzee Mwanje and all the other residents who had come on the land through him.
There was total chaos that day and Gen Museveni watched all this melee on Bukedde TV’s Agataliko Nfufu news at night a few days ago as he prepared to go to bed in Masindi where he was for his PDM mobilisation tour for Bunyoro sub region. Museveni got appalled to see Ainebyona having guts to evict fellow Ugandans inspite of the 2022 Presidential directive which prohibited all manner of land eviction of the Ugandan people.
The President worked closely with his Advisor on Police affairs Suzan Kasingye and contacted Gen Henry Isoke of State House Anti-Corruption Unit who immediately began investigations into the matter while closely working with the DPP Jane Frances Abodo.
Basing on their preliminary findings, Gen Museveni on Wednesday rushed to Kiboga and held a community baraza meeting during which local residents demonized Ainebyona and his Asian Principals, like there was no tomorrow.
Sources close to him say that Gen Museveni is always prepared to defend those in physical occupation of the land regardless of who the registered title owner is. This explains why he was determined to side with Mzee Mwanje and those he had permitted to be in occupation of the same piece of land.
During the Wednesday baraza session, Gen Museveni demanded to know where a mere Ainebyona derived powers from to evict people from their own land when even he himself can never do that even when he is the President of the country. He wondered why Ainebyona didn’t file a court case against Mzee Mwanje rather than acting unilaterally while taking the law in his own hands. He ordered for his arrest and prosecution along with his other agents.
The decisiveness with which Gen Museveni acted emboldened several other aggrieved parties to speak out against Ainebyona who all along had been feared and thought to be a representative of the deep state members. According to the New Vision, the area LC1 Chairman Ham Kizza thanked the President for taking off time to come and personally get involved in the resolution of what had been an elusive land dispute for all manner of political and security leaders in the district.
The President led a huge entourage of powerful leaders including Minister and former area Woman MP Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu and Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba. Suzan Kasingye was present too as were Luwero triangle Minister Alice Kaboyo and DPP Abodo. The seriousness with which the Lwankonge land feuding was tackled indicated the determination by the President not to take bread and butter issues in especially Buganda region lightly anymore.
The veteran leader from Rwakitura’s presence and well demonstrated resolve also emboldened Kiboga East area MP Dr. Kefa Kiwanuka (who is always a quiet man) to say something also. Kefa, who had greatly aided preliminary investigations by Suzan Kasingye, tearfully narrated to the President how he personally had been assaulted and caned by Patrick Ainebyona for trying to intervene in the dispute.
Dr. Kefa Kiwanuka told the President that on learning of the violent eviction exercise that was going on, he personally rushed to Lwankonge only to be thumped by Ainebyona who rained on him several strokes of the cane as if he was battering a cobra snake.
He further explained that Ainebyona directed his marauding men to undress and order him to lie down for more canes only to realise much later on that the bumble bestacled man whose torture had been ordered was actually the Kiboga East area MP. That’s when the torture session was stopped but long after a lot of physical damage had been occasioned.
Before leaving Kiboga, Gen Museveni ordered the IGP to secure the locus and have all tresspassers who had come around under the pro-Ainebyona arrangement locked up as Mzee Badru Mwanje re-occupies the land along with several others who for more than 30 years had been living on the land under his authority.
Even when the State Minister for Lands Dr. Sam Mayanja has tried his best in the last couple of years, the problem of land grabbing and evictions has remained a major cause of the NRM and Gen Museveni’s unpopularity especially in Buganda region, which in 2021 revolted and overwhelmingly voted for Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, while rejecting Gen Museveni who used to be the most popular politician on Kabaka’s turf. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
