Use your land to avoid fraudsters stealing it
By Jamila Mulindwa
Land owners have been urged to put it to use their land in order to deter fraudsters from stealing it. Speaking during the land inquiry, Robert Opio the acting commissioner land registration told the panel of judges led by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire that many people have lost their land because it is idle.
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“If this land is in use no one will steal it, but many plots are idle which gives the fraudsters a chance to take it,” said Opio. Opio was answering a query raised by Hon. Fredrick Ruhindi about the employees in the land commission who have made it a point to search for unused land and take it.
“ The people who take this land use brokers who come, slash the piece of land in case its Idle and pressure the owner to sell” Opio added.
Opio was appearing before the land commission in regards to land on plot 5 block 257 located in Munyonyo, Kyandondo county.
Opio presented evidence of the sale of that property which is being claimed by two families i.e. Sulaiman Byatike Matovu family and Ssekagya Nsibirwa Kiwana. The two families both claim ownership of this land which was sub-divided into plot 432 and 433.
Opio Informed the commission that this land which totals to 9 acres was first owned by Alfred Kato Kigala and registered on 14th may 1942,Kato sold this land to Sulaiman Byatike Matovu in 1959 for 500shs.
Byatike caveated the land in 1961,the same land was again sold to Ambrose Wafugwa in 1968.
According to Opio, the land on plot 5 was sub-divided after Kiwana passed on and his daughter Margrate Kiwana inherited the land as the estate administrator.
‘This sub division took place in 1991” Opio says “the problem is that someone sold the land and never informed the family about”
The commissioners questioned who removed the caveat put by Byatike and Opio informed them it was by court order. It was then that the commissioners raised concerns of lack of information from the land commission to the public.
Opio said as the land commission, they have started giving notices to land owners whenever there is a transaction conducted.
