The Monitor (Kampala)
Martin Ssebuyira
2 July 2009
Entebbe — Soldiers have evicted over 20 families in Kitala village, Katabi Sub-county on Entebbe Road.
The army officials claim the two-and-half acres of land belongs to them.
Soldiers have since Friday camped at the land and barred residents from putting up any structure.
Mr Bazil Kamara, a resident of Kitala village, said he was almost completing his house when the soldiers chased away his workers.
"I am lawfully constructing this house because I have a land lease from the Uganda Land Commission. I wonder how the army can claim land given away by the Ministry of Lands," Mr Kamara told Daily Monitor in an interview recently.
He added: "I also got a letter from the RDC permitting me to construct but the army has stubbornly stopped me from completing my house."
Mr Andrew Lukwago Sentongo, the head of laity at St. Joseph's Church in Kitala, said the army has for the last two months banned them from convening for prayers at their church.
"We showed them our land title and told them to give us theirs that they failed," he said.
According to Mr Lukwago, the church petitioned the RDC's office and called the army to explain but they didn't show up.
Documents obtained by Daily Monitor show that the acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defence, Ms Rosette Byengoma, wrote a letter to the secretary of the lands commission dated March 18 requesting for formal occupation of the land in question, a proposal which the commission rejected, saying it had given away leases to people and constructed permanent houses.
But a letter from the lands commission signed by the secretary, Mr K. Mubbala indicates that the army conducted a few chaka mchaka courses but adds that that can't make them the rightful owners of the land.
The UPDF airforce wing Chief of Staff, Col. Moses Rwakitarate, told Daily Monitor on Saturday that they deployed to stop people from illegally taking their land.
"The land has been ours since the early 1960s, why should people forge documents to claim its ownershi?" Col. Rwakitarate said in a phone interview.
He said they won't look on when people are grabbing their land.
"We won't take away the soldiers until the matter is solved in court," he added.
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