By KT Reporter
The Court of Appeal has issued an injunction restraining the State Minister for Land Sam Mayanja from returning over 300 bibanja holders on land belonging to Engineer Edward Ndawula Kaweesi in Kiboga District.
Sitting as a single judge of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ketrah Kitariisibwa Katunguka said if she doesn’t issue an interim order before the main appeal is heard, Kaweesi was bound to suffer irreparable damage.
“The submission by counsel for the Respondents that because the communities now on the land are not party to this case, a decision should not be made without granting their right to be heard, is, in my view not supported because the pleadings show that the Respondents were all along acting in the interests of the communities, therefore the view of this court is that their interests concerning the suit land are represented and protected by the Respondents. In addition, transactions in interests in land can take place in the shortest time possible; and once land changes hands, recovering it, if and after ownership has been established may not be easy,” the ruling reads in part.
The judge also noted that because Kaweesi is operating a farm on the contested land, the welfare of the animals may not be assured unless any further activity is halted till the appeal is determined.
“I therefore find that if the application is not granted, the status quo may be changed, and the damage resulting from the resettlement of over 300 bibanja holders on the suit property shall be irreparable, rendering the appeal nugatory if successful. “On whether the inconveniences which are likely to arise if the application is not granted would be greater than those which are likely to arise from granting it; I have taken into consideration the fact that the land in issue is registered in the Applicant’s names and he alleges to have owned it now for 30 years; it was decided by the Respondents that the previous bibanja holders be resettled back on the suit land, I find that the Applicant is bound to suffer more inconvenience than the Respondents and bibanja holders. The balance of convenience therefore tilts in favour of the Applicant,” the judge ruled.
According to court records, on August 15, 2024, Sam Mayanja held a meeting in Kiboga District, Kapeke Sub-county, Kasega LC1 which was attended by the RDC and the District Security committee, which resolved to resettle alleged bibanja holders who had long been evicted from the land.
Kaweesi told court that Mayanja continues to threaten him by convening meetings with the alleged Bibanja holders near the contested land, destroying his crops and infrastructure, yet he invested his lifetime savings in purchasing and developing the land on which he has a farm. When he filed a case in the high court seeking orders stopping bibanja holders from returning to the land from which they were compensated, the matter was dismissed.
This prompted him to appeal in the Court of Appeal which is yet to hear the matter. In his response, Mayanja who was sued together with the Attorney General said as the minister, he was exercising his executive powers when he ordered 300 residents from the villages of Kasega, Kyato, Kyetume, Ssega, and Maggi in Kiboga district to return to their land after they had been illegally evicted by Kaweesi.
Mayanja also said that when they discovered that Kaweesi had obtained the land titles to the land illegally after coercing bibanja holders to sign land sales agreements, so he directed the Registrar of titles to cancel them although this has not yet been done.
Sam Mayanja and other ministers of land before him, Aida Nantaba and Persis Namuganza had variously been sued for overstepping their powers by directing bibanja holders to return to land for which sometimes they had already been compensated.
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