Grapevine

Anxiety as over 30,000 face eviction in Wakiso

Tension is simmering between more than 30,000 residents living in 11 villages on Busii Island, Wakiso District, and a purported landlord who claims ownership of the same land they have occupied for many years.

Mr Solomon Nsubuga Mukasa, a land dealer, according to local authorities, successfully separated blocks 554-571 Busiro to enable the Registrar of Titles to process certificates of title for land situated on Block 567-569, Plot 7, for the beneficiary of late Adoniya Kaaya Sembuya Mukasa, the said original owner of the estate.

Mr Charles Mukalazi, the chairperson of Bussi Sub-county, said the separation of the blocks has created panic among residents in the 11 villages in three parishes of Tebankiza, Gulwe and Bussi.

“The Ministry of Lands team came previously to do the separation of blocks, which were combined, but we failed to agree on the terms and procedures of how this was to be done,” he says.

Mr Mukalazi says the disputed piece of land originally belonged to Sir Apollo Kaggwa, a former prime minister of Buganda Kingdom, but the estate was later divided among his children, who later sold it to the current landlords.