Land taken but not paid: Family accuses businessman of eviction

At least 100 residents of Buwagga, Wakiso have petitioned the land commission accusing Ruta Ngambwa over land grabbing.

The residents led by Gertrude Nakimbugwe from Makenke-Gayaza, Busukuma sub-county in Wakiso district want Justice Catherine Bamugemereire who heads the commission to help them reclaim their land.

These accuse city Businessman Ruta Ngambwa, owner of Prime  Estates Limited of evicting them illegally in the event, destroying their property.

The said land is located on Block 127 covering over 245 acres at Buwagga-Busukuma sub-county in Wakiso district.

While appearing for the Bamugemereire led commission, Nakimbugwe told the claimed that following the loss of their father and sole brad winner, the family decided to sell part of the land to make ends meet.

"We agreed as a family with our brother Johnson Kimera to sell off 30 acres of land to get money." Nakimbugwe said.

In the process, they obtained a buyer who turned about to be Ruta Ngambwa. The family then went ahead to negotiate with Ngambwa and agreed to sell to him 30 acres of land at shs. 345 million with each costing Shs.11.5 million.

However, Ngambwa gave them only Shs10million and promised to give them the balance after he had finished to construct the road and bring power to the village which he failed to do.

Nakimbugwe claimed that Ngambwa would later add another Shs70m to make Shs80m after five years, out of the required Shs345m.

“We got the money in instalments yet the initial agreement was to be paid at once.”

The commission asked Nakimbugwe to explain how many agreements she signed while selling the land to Ngambwa because there were two agreements indicating the sale of the same land; first one for November 20th, 2011 and other for 3rd January 2012.

"I signed only one sale agreement for 2011." Nakimbugwe told the commission."

Nakimbugwe also explained to the commission how Ngambwa took over all their land including that of the bibanja holders by evicting forcefully.

"We got problems, one of my brothers ran mad and our mother got paralysed in process and we had to run away. Some of the bibanja holders had their houses broken down and property destroyed including their crops," she said.

As the commission went on with the hearing, 34 out the 80 residents affected were present listening to the proceedings of the commission.