An elderly Ugandan woman living abroad has made an emotional and urgent appeal to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, pleading for a swift presidential intervention to recover her properties allegedly stolen through a fraudulent land grab scheme.
Madam Immaculate Nakawooya-Mutumba, 68, who has been living overseas for over 45 years, has written to the President expressing deep anguish over what she calls “a systematic and orchestrated plunder” of her estate in Uganda.
In a heart-wrenching open letter dated April 7, 2025, Nakawooya accuses her former legal representatives of seizing her land, forging documents, and transferring her property into a shell company Organic Empire (U) Ltd without her knowledge or consent.
“I am humbly pleading for your fast-track presidential intervention to recover and reverse my illegally seized titles,” Nakawooya wrote. “I don’t want to come home in a box. Sorrowfully, I don’t have a home to come back to.”
According to Nakawooya, she began investing in Ugandan real estate in the 1990s in preparation for a peaceful retirement in her homeland. Her estate includes valuable properties in the Kigo and Mutungo areas, some of which she says have been fraudulently transferred to her former lawyers and their associates.
She specifically names Mr. Samuel Ocitti, a lawyer she retained in 2018, as central to the fraudulent scheme. Nakawooya claims Ocitti and his legal partners at Lwere, Lwanyaga & Co. Advocates fabricated documents, forged her signature, and unlawfully transferred property titles. Shockingly, she notes that Ocitti was not even licensed to practice law during part of the time he represented her, according to a 2023 letter from the Judiciary Registrar.
What began as legal assistance allegedly turned into a betrayal. Nakawooya details payments of over 200 million Ugandan shillings to Ocitti, including funds for his education, family emergencies, and business ventures. “I treated Ocitti like a son,” she said. “He called me ‘mama’ and I supported his dreams. I never expected such cruelty.”
Further complicating matters, she alleges that armed men have occupied her Kigo land, some claiming to be acting on orders “from above,” including a man identified as Geofrey Bamwine, purportedly linked to elite security forces. Nakawooya says these individuals have harassed her local agents, attacked LC officials, and even disrupted an official site visit led by government representative Hon. Phiona Barungi.
Despite these challenges, Nakawooya expressed immense gratitude to Hon. Barungi, whom she credits with halting illegal construction on part of her land. “She has shown me grace and empathy, and I am forever grateful,” she said.
In her appeal to the President, Nakawooya invokes his well-known stance against illegal evictions and land grabbing. “Mr. President, you are the Fountain of Honor, the most admired leader in Africa. If, as purported, you are indeed the one relocating your fellows on my estate, please don’t inflict me with more misery. If not involved, I beg for your forgiveness and plead for your powers to help me recover my titles.”
The letter also exposes disturbing allegations of professional misconduct and institutional corruption. Complaints to the Law Council, filed in March 2023, have allegedly gone unanswered, and two of her more recent lawyers abruptly withdrew from the case, allegedly after being compromised.
Now ill and battling medical issues, Nakawooya says her dwindling resources are being drained by drawn-out legal cases. “They are simply waiting for me to die so they can loot the rest,” she wrote. “But I am not ready to give up.”
As Nakawooya continues her fight from afar, her story sheds light on the dark side of Uganda’s land sector where greed, legal exploitation, and impunity can rob even the most prepared of their life savings.
Ugandan authorities have yet to issue an official statement in response to these allegations. However, Nakawooya’s appeal has begun to gain traction among diaspora communities and land rights activists who are calling for an independent investigation and immediate government action.
Efforts talk to lawyer Ocitti by press time were futile as his well known contacts were not going through out.