By KT Reporter
At least 120 residents of Namakindu cell in Nyendo-Mukungwe division, Masaka City, are living in fear as their landlord compels them to buy off their plots or face displacement.
The affected residents were originally part of Mukungwe sub-county in Masaka district, some of the communities that were annexed to the city at its creation in 2021.
According to them, two years ago, a group of people led by Michael Lukyamuzi, a businessman in Kampala, showed up in the area and presented themselves as the registered owners of the estate that measures about 800 acres.
Prossy Bukenya, the LCI Council Treasurer, who is among the affected residents, narrates that the community is in fear, after the claimants started threatening them with eviction should they fail to buy off their plots.
She indicates that the claimants connived with unscrupulous brokers who are currently manipulating some of the residents into signing agreements to surrender part of their land in exchange for the titles.
Bukenya explains that her husband was compelled to surrender 4 out of 7.8 acres of their land to the claimants after the family failed to raise 75 million shillings, which was required of them to retain their plot.
Simon Peter Nsubuga, another affected resident, indicates that his ancestral home and the burial grounds of his grandparents are at risk of destruction because the claimants have already put part of the land they are occupying on sale.
Nsubuga indicates that despite pleading to be allowed to pay ground rent, the claimants have remained indifferent and are insisting on taking part of the land if the occupants cannot afford 25 million shillings per acre for the land title.
He says that to his disappointment, the claimants connived with some local leaders to survey the estates without the consent of the current occupants.
Ben Lukyamuzi and Bukenya Kityo say that early this year, they were lured into signing agreements surrendering part of their land after they were promised titles, which have never been delivered.
Kityo indicates that the claimants have never shared with the residents copies of the parent land title, something that raises suspicions about the said ownership claims. In the meantime, the affected residents have sought the intervention of the area Members of Parliament to save them from what they describe as undue violations.
Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba, the Member of Parliament for Nyendo-Mukungwe division, has asked the residents to furnish him with copies of land sharing agreements they signed with the claimants, whom he says acted erroneously.
He advised the occupants to continue utilising their land, indicating that the claimants have no valid basis for displacing residents who have stayed on the land for decades without any interference.
However, Darausi Matovu, one of the claimants of the land, indicates some of the complainants cannot defend their occupancy on the estate because they do not have any perchance agreement, and declined to agree on the sum of ground rent payable per acre.
He also accuses occupants of being hostile to the landlords, which prompted them to negotiate a way out, by asking residents to pay some money such that they are given certificates of title for the plots they are occupying-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
