By Mulengera Reporters
Despite her advanced age, Ms Jamaawa Nantuume has continued distinguishing herself as a fearless and daring land dealer in Mukono. She is one who knows no boundary and doesn’t fear even the mighty.
The Mukono Nasuuti resident’s courage is believed to be deriving from the fact that she has the backing of some powerful people including a veteran army General who is renowned for his crude land grabbing antics.
But recently, Jamaawa inadvertently burnt her fingers when she risked grabbing and taking over a prime piece of land located on Mpooma Hill in Mukono belonging to two medical doctors based in Soroti.
The history to the whole thing is that on 30th May 2008, Jamaawa covenanted to sell 8.89 acres of land to two renowned medical doctors namely Juventile Emuku and his spouse Dr. Elizabeth Emuku of Kyaliwajjala-Namugongo. She received Shs6m per acre for the land, which was a significant sum as of 2008 (which is now 15 years ago). The Mukono Nasuuti resident got all the money and wished the buyers well only to turn round after chewing and finishing the money.
The clear sale agreement, which was witnessed by Moses Bakku on her behalf, indicates that she was to pass on the land and forfeit both her legal and equitable interest in the same. And gratefully, the land was freehold.
The land is registered as Plot 24 Block 95 Kyaggwe. It’s in Mpooma Parish in Mukono’s Naama Sub County. An impression was created that she was equally representing the interests of her other family members. The purchase price was Shs6m per acre and the final instalment or payment was received by Jamaawa in January 2009.
When called upon to surrender her passport photos to facilitate the transfer of the titles, Jamaawa hit the roof claiming she had changed her mind and wasn’t prepared to refund even a coin. The matter was escalated to the High Court whose Justice Flavia Senoga Anglin ruled in favor of the two doctors who proceeded to process their title which was issued on 26th March 2012.
Jamaawa didn’t give up. She applied to the High Court again but her application was dismissed as vexatious by Justice Patricia Wasswa Basaza. The two doctors were awarded costs which Jamaawa has never paid up. After the 2014 Basaza decision, a dissatisfied Jamaawa once again ironically returned to High Court whose Justice David Batema in April 2021 dismissed her claim as fraudulent and legally unfounded.
The two doctors proceeded to enjoy quiet possession while developing what they duly considered to be their land. They put up farming activities and erected livestock houses on the land.
Recently, they got a shock of their life when their farm manager or caretaker of the land came under attack by kanyamas who were unleashed to frustrate them in favor of Jamaawa. The Kanyamas unleashed violence, demolished the farm structures and also assaulted workers at the farm.
They also uttered ethnic stuff while questioning why somebody from Teso can own up almost 9 acres of such prime land when indigenous Baganda (mostly outcomes of rural urban migration) are landless.
The two doctors, who operate one of the best private hospitals in Soroti City, tasked their farm Manager to report the case. This was filed at Mukono Police Division after officers at the Mpooma area Police refused to act claiming they feared being reprimanded by one of the Kyaggwe area RDCs who has continued to distinguish him or herself as a key defender and spokesperson for Jamaawa.
The said RDC, renowned for crude deal-making and working for the rich in land wrangles, has since gone as far as lobbying judicial officers in the Mukono area to intervene in favor of Jamaawa who many consider to be a very untruthful and controversial land dealer in the Mukono area.
There is widespread dismay, which has also since been reported to the big man in State House that the Emukus have repeatedly been asked to part with colossal sums of money ostensibly to facilitate Policemen but they haven’t been helped at all.
Each time Policemen come on the ground, they just supervise the Kanyamas destroying property and go away in the evening claiming there is nothing they can do because Jamaawa is backed by very powerful people including a notorious land grabber at the rank of General.
On Thursday 27th April, an indifferent Jamaawa defiantly walked to Mukono Police Station and ordered the release of all the kanyamas who had been detained there for maliciously damaging the Emuku’s property on the Mpooma farm. The friendly RDC backed all this up on grounds that there is no way such ‘innocent’ men could continue being caged on the statement or complaint of a mere farm Manager.
The RDC asserted that it was unfair to keep the Kanyamas in Police cells without the Emukus, who have had to frequently travel from Soroti to follow up this matter almost every week, being present to directly complain to Police.
As the Emukus made their statements in the presence of their lawyer Davis Ssenkumba, a group of the very menacing kanyamas stormed the unipot where the statements were being recorded from and defiantly declared: “Tetujja kukiriza bateso kubeera na ttaaka mu Buganda.” This roughly means we won’t allow people from Teso to own such prime land in Buganda.
The above statement isn’t only sectarian and extortionist but it’s also contrary to the law which allows every citizen of Uganda to purchase and own land in any part of the country. Afande Yona Odot of Mukono Police Station heard all this impunity first hand.
That same Friday 28th April, an even larger group of kanyamas raided the land in the evening and caused more destruction. A two page brief addressed to the IGG Okoth Ochola shows that the kanyamas, numbering more than 20, carried pangas this time round and even assaulted neighbors demanding to know why they were looking at them as they went about their thing.
They declared they were here to claim and inherit what belongs to them as Baganda making it clear people from Teso had no business owning land in Buganda. The IGP is equally informed that all this violence has occasioned a lot of emotional stress to the Emukus who want Jamaawa prosecuted and caged in Luzira or Kitalya to atone her alleged wrongful conduct.
As all this is happening, the Emukus recently petitioned the office of the incorruptible State Minister Sam Mayanja who has since liaised with State House to plot a number of interventions. One of the steps that the government has taken so far, at the prompting of Dr. Sam Mayanja aka Kiggwa Leero, is to prompt the Commissioner Land Registration Baker Mugaino to put a caveat on the land.
This is all aimed at defeating the schemes of the rampaging Jamaawa who recently took surveyors to survey the land afresh in preparation for upcoming transactions.
Gratefully, as he prepares to go visit the locus land in dispute on 8th June, Mayanja has (closely working with Presidency Minister Milly Babalanda) has directed the Mukono District Security Committee (some of whose members have openly been defending Jamaawa) to prepare to ensure that none of the ongoing savagery land grabbing efforts succeeds.
There are also separate efforts by the Legal Department of State House to inquire into the same land dispute over which some employees in the RDC’s office could lose their jobs or at minimum get transferred to new stations.
As he prepares for his 8th June locus visit, Dr. Mayanja has also signaled Gen Henry Isoke who heads the State House Anti-Corruption Unit to begin inquiring into circumstances under which some members of the District Security Committee have been aiding Jamaawa’s mischievous activities on Dr. Emuku’s Mpooma land. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
