Arrested: Dr. Muwonge
Dr. Moses Muwonge, the Director of Samasha Medical Foundation in Kampala city is behind bars for malicious damage. He was detained at Luwero Central police station on Friday when he responded to a summon for interrogations on malicious damage after allegedly destroying the crops of his tenants.
He is jointly locked up together with seven casual laborers he deployed to slash the crops of 15 tenants. It is alleged that in September this year, Dr. Muwonge ordered his staff to destroy both food and cash crops of 15 families in Kiramantugo village in the Kamira sub-county to force them off their land. Some of the affected tenants are Matia Sande, Abdul Asiimwe, Edward Kisoro, and Florence Nakaweesi, all residents of the Kamira sub-county.
The affected tenants occupy part of the 500 acres that Dr. Muwonge recently bought in the area for farming activities. Living Twazagye, the Luwero District Police Commander, says that Muwonge and his employees will appear in court once the State Attorney sanctions their case file.
Erastus Kibirango, the LC 5 Chairperson of Luwero District, and Resident District Commissioner, Richard Bwabye, have since condemned the actions of Muwonge. Bwabye says that Muwonge should answer for his actions and serve as a lesson to all landlords who intend to forcefully evict tenants.
Luwero district agriculture officers have so far inspected 10 acres of food and cash crops allegedly destroyed by Dr. Muwonge. some of the gardens had a mixture of crops such as coffee, bananas, maize, and cassava among others. Prior to his arrest, Dr. Muwonge accused some tenants and Kamira sub-county LC 3 Chairperson Willy Luwomwa of criminal trespass as well as malicious damage.
The leaders had ordered the tenants to reopen a road heading to their gardens, which Muwonge had closed. According to the annual crime police report for 2021, Luwero district registered the highest number of criminal trespass cases with 192 cases, followed by Kasangati division with 163 cases and Mpigi with 155 cases among other districts.
The district also came second among the districts with the highest cases of malicious damage to property with 146 cases, mostly related to land conflicts.
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