Three people suspected to have fraudulently acquired five land titles from President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni,on Monday afternoon appeared before the Chief Magistrates Court in Mpigi for the hearing of their case.
The accused persons include Segane Peter, Suuna Jimmy and the Cartographer Ministry of lands Avola Kennedy were remanded to Sentema government prison till 28/07/2020 as state asked for more time to investigate the case.
The suspects allegedly grabbed the land located at Katwekambwa in Kabulasoke Sub County, Gomba District and forged five land titles out of it.
In the recent land probe commission headed by justice Catherine Bamugemereire, it was established that President Museveni’s land at Kisozi Ranch in Maddu sub-county, Ggomba district was grabbed. The Kisozi ranch manager Florence Kamatenesi said the land grabbers got a title deed for 300 acres in 2016 on the land at Katwe Kambwa hill in Ggomba district.L
Last week, Lands state minister Persis Namuganza pinned Modpher Kajumbula, a former lands commissioner, as the man at the centre of grabbing part of Museveni’s land in Gomba district.
Min.Namuganza said Kajumbula, then a commissioner for surveying and mapping, allegedly helped the two men accused of fraudulently acquiring five land titles on the President’s private land at Katwe-Kambwa village in Kabulasoke sub-county.
The head of the State House Anti-corruption unit, Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema, said they were investigating several senior lands officials over the matter, adding that some have already recorded statements.
She mentioned the officials involved as the then Kyankwanzi district surveyor, Shadrack Ssemugabi (currently in the US); the then cartographer, Kennedy Avola and Nicholas Wamboga, who is currently on interdiction over alleged land fraud in Wakiso district.
Namuganza said her ministry previously had no system of tracking land titles, a loophole which Ssuuna and Sseggane exploited to forge titles.
With the help of Kajumbula, Sseggane and Ssuuna interchanged the President’s block number from 396 to 369.
On February 1, 1997, the Lands Commission issued Museveni with a 44-year lease on block 396 plot 4.
This was after the President applied to the lands ministry for a lease on public land (formerly Crown Land), which is under the control of Uganda Land Commission.
The Fraud According to a statement read by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Dorcas Okalany, Sseggane and Ssuuna in 2014 approached the Kabulasoke area land committee and showed them a deed plan, which is alleged to have been signed by Kajumbula.
This year, when Museveni wanted to further develop his land, he found out that it had three overlapping titles on block 369, plots 7, 8 and 9.
Plot 7 measures 45.357 hectares, plot 8 (31.277 hectares) and plot 9 (46.968 hectares).additional reporting by newvision