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    Mukono RDC Cited In Land Grabbing

    Published

    6 months ago

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    A top Resident District Commissioner (RDC) in Mukono is in trouble over shielding land grabbers.

    The Kyaggwe area RDC is said to be protecting Ms Jamaawa Nantuume who has continued distinguishing herself as a fearless and daring land dealer in Mukono.

    The Mukono Nassuuti resident’s courage is believed to be deriving from the fact that she has the backing of some powerful people including a veteran army General who is renowned for his crude land grabbing antics.

    Jamaawa recently inadvertently burnt her fingers when she risked grabbing and taking over a prime piece of land located on Mpooma Hill in Mukono belonging to two medical doctors based in Soroti.

    The history to the whole thing is that on 30th May 2008, Jamaawa covenanted to sell 8.89 acres of land to two renowned medical doctors namely Juventile Emuku and his spouse Dr. Elizabeth Emuku of Kyaliwajjala-Namugongo. She received Shs6m per acre for the land, which was a significant sum as of 2008 (which is now 15 years ago).

    The Mukono Nasuuti resident got all the money and wished the buyers well only to turn round after chewing and finishing the money.
    The clear sale agreement, which was witnessed by Moses Bakku on her behalf, indicates that she was to pass on the land and forfeit both her legal and equitable interest in the same. And gratefully, the land was freehold.

    The land is registered as Plot 24 Block 95 Kyaggwe. It’s in Mpooma Parish in Mukono’s Naama Sub County. An impression was created that she was equally representing the interests of her other family members. The purchase price was Shs6m per acre and the final instalment or payment was received by Jamaawa in January 2009.

    When called upon to surrender her passport photos to facilitate the transfer of the titles, Jamaawa hit the roof claiming she had changed her mind and wasn’t prepared to refund even a coin. The matter was escalated to the High Court whose Justice Flavia Senoga Anglin ruled in favor of the two doctors who proceeded to process their tilte which was issued on 26th March 2012.

    Jamaawa didn’t give up. She applied to the High Court again but her application was dismissed as vexatious by Justice Patricia Wasswa Basaza. The two doctors were awarded costs which Jamaawa has never paid up. After the 2014 Basaza decision, a dissatisfied Jamaawa once again ironically returned to High Court whose Justice David Batema in April 2021 dismissed her claim as fraudulent and legally unfounded.

    The two doctors proceeded to enjoy quiet possession while developing what they duly considered to be their land. They put up farming activities and erected livestock houses on the land.

    Recently, they got a shock of their life when their farm manager or caretaker of the land came under attack by kanyamas who were unleashed to frustrate them in favor of Jamaawa. The Kanyamas unleashed violence, demolished the farm structures and also assaulted workers at the farm.

    They also uttered ethnic stuff while questioning why somebody from Teso can own up almost 9 acres of such prime land when indigenous Baganda (mostly outcomes of rural urban migration) are landless.

    The two doctors, who operate one of the best private hospitals in Soroti City, tasked their farm Manager to report the case. This was filed at Mukono Police Division after officers at the Mpooma area Police refused to act claiming they feared being reprimanded by one of the Kyaggwe area RDCs who has continued to distinguish him or herself as a key defender and spokesperson for Jamaawa.

    The said RDC, renowned for crude deal-making and working for the rich in land wrangles, has since gone as far as lobbying Judicial officers in the Mukono area to intervene in favor of Jamaawa who many consider to be a very untruthful and controversial land dealer in the Mukono area.

    There is widespread dismay, which has also since been reported to the big man in State House that the Emukus have repeatedly been asked to part with colossal sums of money ostensibly to facilitate Policemen but they haven’t been helped at all.

    Each time Policemen come on the ground, they just supervise the Kanyamas destroying property and go away in the evening claiming there is nothing they can do because Jamaawa is backed by very powerful people including a notorious land grabber at the rank of General.

    On Thursday 27th April, an indifferent Jamaawa defiantly walked to Mukono
    Police Station and ordered the release of all the kanyamas who had been detained there for maliciously damaging the Emuku’s property on the Mpooma farm. The friendly RDC backed all this up on grounds that there is no way such ‘innocent’ men could continue being caged on the statement or complaint of a mere farm Manager.

    The RDC asserted that it was unfair to keep the Kanyamas in Police cells without the Emukus, who have had to frequently travel from Soroti to follow up this matter almost every week, being present to directly complain to Police.
    As the Emukus made their statements in the presence of their lawyer Davis Ssenkumba, a group of the very menacing kanyamas stormed the unipot where the statements were being recorded from and defiantly declared: “Tetujja kukiriza bateso kubeera na ttaaka mu Buganda.” This roughly means we won’t allow people from Teso to own such prime land in Buganda.

    The above statement isn’t only sectarian and extortionist but its also contrary to the law which allows every citizen of Uganda to purchase and own land in any part of the country. Afande Yona Odot of Mukono Police Station heard all this impunity first hand.

    That same Friday 28th April, an even larger group of kanyamas raided the land in the evening and caused more destruction. A two page brief addressed to the IGG Okoth Ochola shows that the kanyamas, numbering more than 20, carried pangas this time round and even assaulted neighbours demanding to know why they were looking at them as they went about their thing.

    They declared they were here to claim and inherit what belongs to them as Baganda making it clear people from Teso had no business owning land in Buganda. The IGP is equally informed that all this violence has occasioned a lot of emotional stress to the Emukus who want Jamaawa prosecuted and caged in Luzira or Kitalya to atone her alleged wrongful conduct.

    As all this is happening, the Emukus recently petitioned the office of the incorruptible State Minister Sam Mayanja who has since liaised with State House to plot a number of interventions. One of the steps that the government has taken so far, at the prompting of Dr. Sam Mayanja aka Kiggwa Leero, is to prompt the Commissioner Land Registration Baker Mugaino to put a caveat on the land.

    This is all aimed at defeating the schemes of the rampaging Jamaawa who recently took surveyors to survey the land afresh in preparation for upcoming transactions.

    Gratefully, as he prepares to go visit the locus land in dispute on 8th June, Mayanja has (closely working with Presidency Minister Milly Babalanda) directed the Mukono District Security Committee (some of whose members have openly been defending Jamaawa) to prepare to ensure that none of the ongoing savagery land grabbing efforts succeeds.

    There are also separate efforts by the Legal Department of State House to inquire into the same land dispute over which some employees in the RDC’s office could lose their jobs or at minimum get transferred to new stations.

    As he prepares for his 8th June locus visit, Dr. Mayanja has also signalled Gen Henry Isoke who heads the State House Anti-Corruption Unit to begin inquiring into circumstances under which some members of the District Security Committee have been aiding Jamaawa’s mischievous activities on Dr. Emuku’s Mpooma land.

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    CRIME

    Lawyers Alaka, Mukasa Mbidde, Ochieng Listed Among Top Lawyers Likely To Face Arrest Over Balondemu’s Forged Medical Letter…

    Published

    2 days ago

    on

    December 2, 2023

    By

    Embattled Kampala District Land Board chairperson David Balondemu (L) and lawyers Alaka (Top R) and Mbidde (bottom R)

    The mighty Grapevine has exclusively learnt that very soon, some top city lawyers are likely to face arrest over Kampala District Land Board chairperson David Balondemu’s alleged forged medical letters.

    Highly placed sources at police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigation(CID) have revealed that last week, Jackson Tweheyo on behalf of Maj. Dr. Tom Magambo the CID Director summoned lawyers Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng, Hassan Kamba, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, Robert Bautu to appear before the State House Anti-Corruption Unity to record statements on allegation of forging a medical letter.

    The lawyers were supposed to appear before the Department of Economic Fraud and Anti-Corruption on 28th of November 2023 but they all snubbed the summons.

    However, when contacted, lawyer Alaka rubbished the allegation of face arrest explaining that he personally hasn’t yet been summoned but his friend Bautu told him that he was summoned to appear before State House Anti-Corruption Unit.

    Counsel Alaka, a Criminal law giant explained that the State House Anti-Corruption Unit under the command of Brig. Gen. Henry Isoke doesn’t have powers to summon a lawyer on grounds of offences committed by his client.

    “They are not serious, Advocates are Officers of Court. We are just helping court to deliver justice. For us we just represent clients. They are the ones who give us documents including local council letters. So, we are not the ones authorising those documents,” Alaka noted.

    theGrapevine has learnt that lawyer Bautu wrote to State House Anti-Corruption Department explaining why they will not appear to record the said statements.

    He noted that they have the privilege to present the documents given to them by their client to a judicial officer and thus are not answerable for those documents.

    Buganda Road State Attorney Ivan Kyazze brought to the attention of the presiding magistrate in Balondemu’s bail application Winnie Nankya that the accused person with the help of his lawyers forged medical letters from Kampala Hospital.

    He presented the affidavit of Dr. Peter Kibuka the Kampala Hospital Chief Executive Officer denying the said letter noting that it was not authored from his hospital.

    The letter presented by lawyers indicated that Balondemu, who is battling multibillion fraud cases was supposed to have a surgical operations in the very week the application came before the magistrate.

    Highly placed sources at State House Anti-Corruption Unit told theGrapevine that the detectives were set to arrest the said lawyers last week but all of them run into hiding.

    The said lawyers were added on the list of over 50 city lawyers who are under investigation on allegations of abetting fraud and corruption.

    Among the lawyers who is set to be arrested before Christmas is one working with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) who issued a bribe of Shs70m to a top politician at City Hall to be given a juicy job.

    State alleges that Balondemu, Erick Geoffrey Mkwe, Joseph Ibona  together with others still at large fraudulently obtain Shs2.2bn from the American company KG Unlimited under the guise of awarding them a contract of supplying agricultural drone sprayers and fertilizers in the Ministry of Agriculture.

    Sources at the State House Anti-Corruption Unit said that Balodemu has two already sanctioned criminal files by Justice Jane Frances Abodo the Director Public Prosecution and 15 other files have not yet been sanctioned even though investigations are done.

     

    By Sengooba Alirabaki

    Views: 1,075

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    NATIONAL

    High Level Lobbying Kicks Off For UNRA’s Kagina To Replace Gen. Katumba In Ministry of Works As M7 Finalises New Cabinet That Will Sail Him Through 2026 Elections…

    Published

    2 days ago

    on

    December 2, 2023

    By

    UNRA's Allen Kagina and President Museveni

    For fear of losing workaholic Allen Kagina the Executive Director of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) in the ongoing process of merging government agencies as a mechanism to cut government expenditure, a number of lobbyists including politicians from both the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the opposition are persuading the appointing authority to appoint her a minister.

    According to a recent cabinet brief, UNRA is set to be taken back to the Ministry of Works and Transport which means that Kagina has to compete with other candidates to head a department in the ministry and her powers will be reduced because she will no longer be the final decision maker on road construction matters.

    Maverick Kira Municipality legislator, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said that if such a move to merge government agencies is executed, it will be a disservice to the public because UNRA, being an independent body has been making constructive decisions which have benefited the public.

    Ssemujju noted that if UNRA is taken back to the Ministry of Works and Transport, he will be among those who will lobby and pray that Kagina is appointed a minister so that she remains the final decision maker.

    “For me I like that woman, not because she has helped construct and rehabilitate roads in my constituency but because she is not corrupt. Many people in Museveni’s government are very corrupt, their names are on the corruption wall of fame but for Kagina, No. I speak this with authority because as a Member of Parliament I’ve sat on several accountability committees including chairing COSASE but Kagina’s name was never cited in any corruption scandal, which is not easy when you are working in Museveni’s government,” Ssemujju said.

    He added, “And when you enter her office asking for construction of your road, she doesn’t make phone calls to receive orders from above, she makes her decision there and then. We need such people because she is close to Museveni’s family.”

    Highly placed sources in the corridors of power confirmed to theGrapevine that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is likely to reshuffle his cabinet during Christmas holidays.

    Sources disclosed that a number of people have been recommending Kagina for the position of Works and Transport minister.

    We have been told that Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala the current Minister for Works and Transport is set to be transferred to the Prime Minister’s Office to help the president clean that docket which has been named one of the most corrupt.

    Sources said that when Gen. Katumba went to the works ministry, he started a cleaning process and a number of untouchables were put to order.

    Sources revealed that in the Prime Minister’s Office, there are many untouchables especially in the office of the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness, and Refugees.

    When the current Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja tried to expose them, she was character assassinated and humiliated to the extent that the appointing authority started asking questions.

    Senior presidential advisor on media and also a seasoned social, political and economic commentator Joseph Tamale Mirundi recently disclosed that in the coming reshuffle, the president is going to appoint a team of ministers who will help him sail through the 2026 general elections.

    Mirundi explained that the President’s immediate opponent Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) of the National Unity Platform (NUP) is trying to portray his government as one full of human rights violators and they plan to use these accusations as a weapon during the 2026 campaigns.

    He noted that a number of ministers are living in fear of being fired in the next reshuffle.

    “Now all of them are running to get photos with Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Many of them have been fighting the MK Movement but they now want him to appoint them to organizing committees of barazas which are going to take place in their constituencies,” Mirundi said.

    He added that Gen. Muhoozi is going to be a strong factor in deciding who to appear on the list of incoming ministers.

    He was supported by shadow finance minister Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi who said that in the coming reshuffle, Museveni is going to appoint more youths in his cabinet as a way of countering Bobi Wine.

    The Butambala county legislator gave the example of Ruth Katushabe the former Bukomansimbi legislator and also the Senior Presidential Advisor on Political Affairs who was assigned by Museveni to make sure that most of the students in Secondary and University vote for him come 2026.

    Kivumbi claimed that Katushabe has been moving school to school, university to university campaigning for Museveni and before her appearance at any learning institution, the heads first receive commands from above to allow her to talk to students.

    Kivumbi however boasted that NUP and Bobi Wine are also campaigning clandestinely in schools.

    Sources in the corridors of power told theGrapevine that among the ministers who are likely not to comeback are Amos Lugolobi the state minister for finance in charge of planning, Agnes Nandutu the state minister for Karamoja affairs and her boss Marry Gorreti Kituntu who are currently battling with corruption charges at the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court.

    Others are; Moses Ali the Second Prime minister, Anifa Kawooya the state minister for health,  James Magode Ikuya the state minister for East African affairs who sources claim are going to be fired on health grounds.

    Sources divulged that Gen. Edward Kale Kayihura the former Inspector General of Police is likely to be appointed a senior Minister of Internal Affairs, Lillian Aber the women’s representative for Kitgum District is set to be appointed a state minister in the Ministry of Labour, Otuke Member of Parliament Paul Omara is set to take over Lugolobi’s office, Kagoma North Constituency legislator Brandon Kintu who is also the NRM parliamentary caucus spokesperson will be taken to the Ministry of Information and National Guidance.

    Dr. Chris Baryomunsi is likely to be taken to the ministry of health and chances are high that Nabanja is going to retain her position as the country’s prime minister.

     

    By Sengooba Alirabaki

    Views: 1,160

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    NATIONAL

    Why NUP Want Dead Body Of Bobi Wine’s Bodyguard Exhumed; Mpuuga Set To Make More Demands…

    Published

    2 days ago

    on

    December 2, 2023

    By

    Bobi Wine (R) with the late Ssenteza (L)

    The Opposition in Parliament lead by the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP) Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba on Tuesday are set to task Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire the Internal Affairs senior minister to give a detailed report concerning the circumstances that caused the death of Francis Kalibbala Ssenteza the former bodyguard to National Unity Platform (NUP) Principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine).

    Shadow Finance minister and also Butambala County legislator Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi told theGrapevine that they were not convinced with Gen. Otafiire’s report and they are going to give the country a response through Mpuuga on the floor of Parliament.

    Kivumbi said that among the issues they want explained is the way Ssenteza was killed in a motor accident because Gen. Otafiire’s report claims that he was knocked by Bobi Wine’s Toyota Hiace which he used during the 2021 presidential campaigns.

    He narrated that Gen. Otafiire who signed the Statement, even though it was read by his State Minister Gen. David Muhoozi confirmed that at the scene of crime, there was a military vehicle.

    He added that government intentionally refused to carry out a postmortem report on Ssenteza’s dead body because they feared that it would reveal the cause of his death.

    “He stated that NUP supporters run away with the dead body and it is the reason they gave why they didn’t make a postmortem report but all of us know very well that the State has the capacity to exhume a body and carry out an autopsy because we cannot allow a person to die in such circumstances not subject his body to a postmortem,” Kivumbi said.

    Ssenteza, who was a carpenter at Mulago ku Biiri along Bombo road was knocked dead at Busega roundabout and buried in December of 2020 at his ancestral home in Masaka district.

    Kivumbi added that another explanation they want from Otafire is the circumstances under which Bobi Wine supporter Ritah Nabukenya died in a motor accident.

    He said that Otafire confirmed that Nabukenya was knocked by a speeding police patrol at Nakawa a Kampala city suburb and the driver of the patrol was arrested but the Director for Public Prosecution (DPP) Justice Jane Frances Abodo declined to sanction the file on grounds that it did not have supporting evidence.

    He insisted that the evidence was there but the file was not sanctioned on political grounds.

    However when contacted, Gen. Otafiire boasted that he is ready to face Mpuuga in parliament and he will answer all his questions on the floor of parliament because he will be there himself, not his junior minister.

    Highly placed sources in the LOP’s office told theGrapevine that immediately after Mpuuga makes his response, he will table fresh demands.

    They will include demands for an explanation on the arrest and humiliation of Muslim clerics and the issue of Balalo in northern Uganda particularly in Acholi.

    But Otafiire said that once the new demands are raised, he will ask the presiding speaker to give him more time to investigate the allegation and report back as he did with the first demands.

     

    By Hadijja Namagembe

    Views: 532

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