Josephine Nakidde, 40, a mother of three, is fighting to reclaim her home after a three-bedroom house in Bulindo, Kira Municipality, was demolished in a dispute over family land.
On Monday, a group of unidentified people reportedly broke into the house where Nakidde had lived for more than 20 years, together with her husband, Ephraim Kirumira, and their children. They cut through the doors, destroyed household property and forcibly removed her from the house.
She says she was bundled onto a pickup truck with only a few of her belongings and driven to Sonde, where she was allegedly left in a single room her husband had rented for her. According to Nakidde, the group returned to the property after dumping her in Sonde and demolished the house.
Nakidde says her troubles began after Kirumira started a company and became financially successful. She alleges that his behaviour changed, accusing him of becoming unfaithful, taking other wives and eventually abandoning her and their three children.
Nakidde says Kirumira disappeared from the family for about 17 years before resurfacing and demanding that she vacate the property. She alleges that her husbandis conniving with his uncle to sell the property and share the proceeds, leaving her and the children homeless, and disputes his claim that the land belongs to his uncle.
She says she previously reported the dispute to local council authorities, police and Kira Municipality in an effort to compel her husband to support the children, including paying their school fees, but her efforts yielded no resolution.
Now homeless, Nakidde is appealing for help. “I appeal to women’s rights groups, ministries and the President to help me. One of my children is in Senior Six. He should not know that we are homeless because he might fail his final examinations. I have struggled to pay his school fees,” she said.
Kirumira, however, disputes Nakidde’s account and insists that the property belongs to his uncle who had allowed him and his family to stay on the land temporarily while he looked for his own property.
According to Kirumira, he had been trying to vacate the premises but was prevented from doing so by his wife, prompting his uncle to take him to court. He says he eventually agreed in court to vacate the property with his family, but Nakidde refused to leave.
“I don’t have land in Bulindo. The property belongs to my uncle and I agreed to vacate. But my wife and her other ‘husbands’ advising her appear to want to grab the land. I won’t be part of it, and I cannot fight with my family,” Kirumira said.
Nakidde’s lawyer, Jocelyn Claire Nabatanzi of Nyambane & Co. Advocates, disputes the legality of the demolition, saying her client was never served with an eviction order and that there was no demolition permit authorising the destruction of the house.
She said the uncle and his son had been involved in a High Court dispute over the property, but Nakidde, despite having lived on the land for about 20 years, was not included in the proceedings.
Nabatanzi said that after learning about the case, Nakidde went to court seeking to have the consent judgment set aside and to be added as a defendant so that she could present her case. However, she said, the application had not been resolved when the demolition was carried out.
“She has a protection order from court issued in the 2000s that stopped the husband from selling the property, and it has never been vacated,” Nabatanzi said “We will follow up the matters that are still in court, but she has also opted for administrative measures to see if the matter can be resolved,” she added.
Nabatanzi further said Nakidde and Kirumira were married under customary law and argued that she is entitled to equal protection and rights regarding matrimonial property in the event of separation or divorce-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
