A meeting between the Executive and MPs to discuss the proposed constitutional amendment to Article26 that seeks to give Government powers to compulsorily acquire private land for public projects has ended prematurely.
The two sides failed to agree on the reason as to why the constitution should be changed.
This means that the impending constitutional amendment may not see light of day after it (the amendment) faced a lot of opposition from MPs on the Committee of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
The Tuesday meeting saw Mwesigwa Rukutana, the Deputy Attorney General and Betty Amongi, the Minister of Land sweat uncontrollably as MPs fired them with tough questions.
If passed in its current form, the government will be at liberty to acquire private land compulsorily before compensating the owners.
Rukutana told MPs that the bill is aimed at putting to an end delayed execution of Government projects that have for long been hampered with land compensation disputes.
“Contrary to what some sections of the public and media is portraying that the bill is intending to grab people’s land and render citizens landless, the bill reinforces the requirement of Article 26(b) on prompt adequate and fair compensation by Government,” Rukutana said, adding that no sane or right thinking member of society would say no to the amendment proposal as public interests take precedent over individual interests.
However, his remarks didn’t go down well with most MPs, with Jackson Rwakafuzi and Muhammad Nsereko terming his statement as bogus.
The Committee Chairman, Markson Oboth asked Rukutana to explain why Government thinks land amendment is the most pressing issue and why bring amendments when there already a Commission of inquiry into land matters.
However, Abdu Katuntu, a member on the Legal Committee rubbished Rukutana’s argument, noting that the bill is seeking to take away people’s rights to land.
“I can assure you that we are not going to take decisions affecting people’s rights over their land without consulting them. That will not be possible,” Katuntu said.
He wondered why Government should be trusted with land in dispute if it has failed to clear the debt of people who willingly gave out their land.
The meeting was adjourned to Thursday after Rukutana and Amongi failed to justify the need for amendment of the constitution.
The lawmakers advised government to come up with new provisions for courts to quickly dispose of land related disputes.
