Many police holding cells and prison facilities, largely in the central part of Uganda, are filled with people detained over land-related disputes. Some of them were allegedly arrested on fabricated cases of trespass, malicious damage to property, and aggravated robbery following their involvement in land wrangles with rich, powerful and well-connected individuals. The police cells and prison facilities have reportedly become a bargaining ground, used by a section of the rich and powerful to either forcefully take over land under dispute or force negotiations that favour them at the expense of the less privileged members of society.
For instance, in Kabubu Village, Nangabo Sub-county in Wakiso District, Mr Richard Sebaggala and his wife Prossy Namande were recently granted bail by the High Court in Luweero District after spending more than eight months in Nakasongola Prison on an alleged aggravated robbery case that reportedly occurred in December 2023. The couple said that when they returned home, they were shocked to find that the person who had accused them of robbing him had allegedly taken over a big chunk of their land and constructed permanent structures. Sources said Mr Sebaggala and his wife were picked up by police officers at their home in Kabubu on December 31, 2023, and transferred to Luweero Central Police Station where they spent more than one week in the police holding cells before they were produced at Luweero Chief Magistrate’s Court on charges of aggravated robbery.
Justice Henrienta Wolayo granted Mr Sebaggala and Ms Namande bail, while wondering how a husband and wife got arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with an underlying case of a land dispute. Mr Sebaggala said they still report to court after two months on the same charge, but are now struggling to save part of the family land that remains after a significant portion was allegedly grabbed from them. There are several other cases similar to that of Sebaggala and his wife. Those reportedly detained over trumped-up charges are mostly bibanja landholders. On May 29, 2023, then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Jane Frances Abodo rushed to Luweero Chief Magistrate Court to save an 84-year-old woman, Ms Kevina Nabaseruka, who had earlier been remanded by the same court on charges of alleged malicious damage to property and trespass on land.
The story that was published by Daily Monitor on May 27, 2023, went viral via the different social media platforms, drawing public condemnation and intervention of state actors, including the office of the DPP. The DPP, while at the Luweero Chief Magistrate Chambers and before the Luweero Chief Magistrate, Ms Mariam Sserwanga Nalugya, tendered in a case withdrawal form. “The case is dismissed and the file closed. The accused is released immediately,” the chief magistrate ruled. DPP Abodo accompanied the old woman out of the chief magistrate’s chambers. Luweero, Nakaseke,Wakiso, Kyankwanzi, Kiboga and Nakasongola are among the many areas where land disputes account for almost 80 percent of the crime cases reported at the different administrative offices, including the resident district commissioners’ offices and police stations. Several locals who spoke to Daily Monitor said they were detained over trumped-up charges after they resisted attempts to grab their land.
The locals said unscrupulous rich and powerful people bribe the local council chairpersons and the police to arrest and detain them over bogus charges and while they are under detention, their land is grabbed. At Kaga Village in Wakiso District, the family of the late Yoana Mulo Mugwanya is locked in a land dispute with a real estate developer , Mr Godfrey Genza, the proprietor of Zion Estates, who allegedly grabbed their land in 2008. The private Mailo land in contention, measuring 488.6 acres, is on Block 484, formerly Plot 2, Busiro County, in Kaga Village, Kajjansi Town Council, Wakiso District. According to Mr Elvis Yobu Kabuusu, one of the administrators of the estate, the land, which formerly belonged to Matayo Nsubuga, was bought by his grandfather, the late Mulo Mugwanya, in 1947, from an Indian bank where it was used by the latter as collateral security to secure a loan. “My grandfather paid Shs15,800 to secure the land from the bank and successfully registered it under his name in 1949, but unfortunately died in 1964 and left no written will,” Mr Kabuusu said.
Following his death, the documents for the land were returned to Buganda Kingdom, from where they were later transferred to the Office of the Administrator General in 1974. The family started managing this estate, and they were collecting annual nominal ground rent (Busuulu) from the squatters until 2008, when Mr Genza allegedly forcefully took over the land. “It was through a lot of frustration that we managed to get letters of administration on November 15, 2024, but we have been frustrated by some officials in Ministry of Lands, including the acting Commissioner–Land Registration, Mr Johnson Byiringiro Bigira, in our efforts to secure a title deed,” Mr Kabuusu said. He added that the real estate developer has not only threatened him and his co-administrator, Mr Michael Mulaggusi, but has continued to subdivide their land and has blocked them from utilitising it. “Recently, Mr Genza took a tractor to the village and cleared another piece of land. We reported this to the office of the commandant, Land Police Protection Unit, but the tractor remained on the site, continuing with the works,” he noted.
Mr Kabuusu added that Mr Genza seems to have his agents in the Ministry of Lands who link him to top bosses. “The last time we met the commissioner [Mr Bigira], he claimed to be busy, and we gave up. We accepted the loss,” he said.
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