Beatrice Byenkya, the Chairperson of Uganda Land Commission
The Uganda Land Commission has revealed that there is a racket of former workers in Ministry of Lands and Uganda Land Commission fraudulently applying for expired land leases.
They have lists of land with expired leases and are making claims for compensation worth billions of shillings.
The revelation was made by Beatrice Nyakaisiki Byenkya, the Chairperson of Uganda Land Commission while appearing before Parliament’s Adhoc Committee investigating the recently aborted Shs5Bn land compensation.
Jack Nyeko, Commissioner of Uganda Land Commission cited two examples of applications made in Kololo and industrial area, noting that the system in place at the time required the Commission to approve those applications without making physical inspection on the said land.
“…When we came in, the former secretary (Robert Nyombi) was telling us that land inspection is out of question, you just sit and approve without seeing the land,” Nyeko said.
However, on inspection of the two land applications on Nakasero lane, they found Kisozi Estates and National Enterprise Corporation for the Army.
“The people who applied are people who had been in commission before and what we were told is that they have a list of land with expired leases, then they give it out, they sell that information,” said Nyeko.
It should be recalled that Speaker Kadaga ordered an investigation after tip of by Uganda Land Commission Chairperson Beatrice Byenkya wrote a protest letter to Speaker warning Parliament against approving supplementary budget to Ministry of Land to compensate owners of Lusajja land and St. Peters Church Ndeeba saying the Commission wasn’t aware of the claimants.
After Byenkya’s protest letter, Speaker Kadaga was hounded by another petition from one of the claimants who denied having earlier received first batch of payment and the supplementary request was meant to clear the debt.
When members of the Land Commission appeared before the Adhoc Committee, they denied having been consulted on the supplementary request and only learnt about the matter while watching parliamentary proceedings in plenary.
The Commission also revealed that they had never heard about the two claimants of Ndeeba church and Lusanja and the duo didn’t follow the 13 guidelines and procedure on how to make claim for land compensation as outlined by Government.
Commissioner Tom Kasenge described as unfair the decision by Ministry of Lands led by Beti Kamya and Persis Namuganza to table list of only six claimants out of 200 other members.
He also wondered how the Ndeeba and Lusanja land owners got on the list saying for the last 4 years the outstanding debt has hit over Shs140Bn.
“We had previously been considering some of these applicants save for Ndeeba and Lusanja who ought to have taken the same procedure. We have people on list we owe money for over 10years. Among these claimants are very old people brought on stretcher in corridors of Land Commission. We have people who are heavily indebted and they haven’t been paid money to be able to pay off their debts. Its only 3-4 times that Commission has discussed list of claimants,” said Kasenge.
Margaret Akello, the longest serving Commissioner said for over 8years, the Land Fund issue was never discussed in the Board and when the new management tried to claim back their powers to manage the Land Fund, they were served with warning letters by Minister Betty Amongi yet the firing of Commissioner members only lies with the President.
“It has been very difficult for us to take the role that other people used to do, we aren’t surprised to see that list. The time we begun to put pressure on our secretary, we were almost suspended. Our letter was signed by Betty Amongi in 2019. We have been sitting in commission and not allowed to do what we are supposed to do. A lot of our work is usurped,” Akello explained.
Veronica Elagu, Chairperson Adhoc Committee castigated the Land Commission for taking people’s land and confiscating their titles without full payment.
Barbra Imario, Secretary to Commission said that at the moment, the Commission isn’t taking up request for purchasing any new land and placing caveats on land that Government has expressed interest in.
