Judith Nabakooba, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development
Government has revealed plans to compensate Linda Nyakairima, widow to the late and former Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima in order to stop the eviction of over 200 families settled on five square miles of land belonging to the Aronda family.
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Judith Nabakooba made the remarks while responding to a concern raised by Joel Sebikali (Ntwentwe County) who asked the Ministry of Lands to intervene on the impending eviction of over 200 homesteads by Linda Nyakairima after she claimed ownership of the five square miles of land in Kyankwanzi district.
The Minister informed Parliament that when the Ministry of Lands carried out investigations, it found out that the land belongs to the late Aronda Nyakairima’s wife and covers five square miles and at the time of acquiring the land in 2010, the land had very few settlements but as of now, the land is highly encumbered.
“We wrote to the President who guided that the Land Fund should be used to compensate the land owner so that people can have titles on this land. So the boundary opening and land valuation was carried out to enable us start the process of compensating the landlord,” said Nabakooba.
In February 2022, reports emerged that more than 1,000 people were facing forceful eviction from their ancestral land following a feud between residents and Linda Nyakairima, who claimed ownership of land they claimed to have settled on since the 1940s.
It was reported that Linda Nyakairima deployed 30 soldiers who barred residents from accessing the land, and accompanied the deployment with 10 graders and excavators and embarked on the exercise of clearing the land, uprooting gardens of crops and trees that had been planted by the residents.
It isn’t the first residents have accused Linda Nyakairima of threatening to evict them over 640 acres of land in Kyankwanzi, with a similar complaint having been recorded by the Commission of Land Matters headed by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.
Records indicate that the land was initially registered as a private mailo property in the names of late Matayo Kidimbo Mpanga on 9th March 1931, but the land ownership soon changed to the late Gen. Aronda who is said to have bought the land from Gideon Kibirango, although, it didn’t take long before Kibirango’s ownership was brought into contestation when Mpanga’s grandson Ibrahim Lumu came out claiming ownership of the same land.
