Minister Sam Mayanja is on the spotlight for ordering brokers to demolish the remaining properties on the contested land.
It is alleged that the minister has used his power to block all efforts for Dr Apollo Kaggwa to get an injunction stopping the illegal activities taking place.
What you need to Know:
There is an allegation that the minister sold the land at One billion and five hundred thousand (1.5) to brokers and was paid five hundred thousand (500) million shillings while waiting for the balance after giving them vacant possession on the land.
According to reports, the reason the minister is pushing for full demolition of the all structures, plantations and all projects on this land, is that he wants to be paid his balance by the brokers as soon as possible.
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On tuesday 4th July 2023, Doctor Apollo Kaggwa a 75year old claims the State Minister for Lands Dr. Sam Mayanja used his position to rob him of his entire retirement plan.
Using his power and influence, a report was produced on behalf of the State Minister for Lands by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit which listed 13 people to be forcefully installed onto Dr. Kaggwa` s land as ‘bibanja holders’.
Dr. Kaggwa claims that the listed people came from nowhere as they are not known to Dr. Apollo Kaggwa or the people in his neighborhood.
"They were only known to the State Minister of Lands. On 4th July, 2023, Sam Mayanja organised a ‘give away’ ceremony on my land to the 13 people however, on the said date, he gathered a mob of over 500 people and incited them to raid, destroy, loot and take over my land" - DR. Kaggwa
It is alleged that this was done in the presence of Wakiso RDC – Ms Mbabazi Justine, DPC – Mr. Robert Katuramu and Hon. Medard Ssegoona the area Member of Parliament and they all watched with delight as Dr. Kaggwa`s land was ransacked by armed mobstars with pangas, guns and other rudimentary weapons.
Plantations, gardens, coffee plantations, paddocks, animal shelters, historical vegetation and other items were all destroyed as the District leadership gleefully watched.
Dr. Apollo Kaggwa beheld the scene unfold in utter disbelief as he watched the people that were supposed to protect his years of honest service to the Government of Uganda participate in the theft and distraction of his hard-earned property.
Dr. Kaggwa's family as a next best option rushed to report the distraction at Wakiso District Police but the Station officials refused to take their statements saying that they had received instructions not to take any record/ police statements of the obvious criminal activities that had taken place. And with that the doors of justice had been slammed and tightly locked in Dr. Apollo Kaggwa`s face on orders ‘from above’.
The Genesis:
A 75-year-old law-abiding senior citizen called Dr. Apollo Kaggwa and who served the Government of Uganda for 50 years as a medical doctor.
He is currently a retired consultant physician and I used to reside on his farm but had to relocate because its currently being taken over by land fraudsters and mobsters of untamed proportions in Wakiso District.
This statement is a testament to his ordeal with land fraudsters in Wakiso District that have used the media to share fabricated stories about his land in order to gain deceptive sympathy from the public and political leaders thus successfully using their political platforms to steal the property.
Contested Ownership of My Land
"Over the past 5 years, land fraudsters have continuously attempted to steal my property by trying to convince various leaders in our community that I have no legal claim over my land. I painstakingly acquired the said contested land from the early 1990`s to 2002 comprising of Blocks 248, Plots 9, 49, 73,75, 76 and 77 located in Wakiso District with no encumbrances and proof of my ownership can be verified by the Office of the Commissioner Land Registration at MOLHUD"-Dr. Kaggwa.
He says at the time of purchase, the property had 20 squatters (Bibanja Holders) all of whom were compensated and they peacefully left as agreed and proof of the relevant agreements are available for verification.
"All the other bibanja claimants are not known to me or my family" - Dr Kaggwa.
Intention for Development:
He says when he purchased the property, he had plans to set up a housing estate with a community church, a hospital, 3 schools, a modern farm and various recreation centers.
"When I started implementing my plans, I discovered that the land had acquired very many unknown/ illegal settlers through the years and upon, investigation I discovered that my property was being used by a group of unknown brokers to sell ‘air’ to unsuspecting citizens. This discovery jolted me into quick realization that I needed to engage all the unknown settlers on my property about the true ownership of the land and also change the approach to the developments I planned to do" - Dr. Kaggwa.
Community Engagement Efforts:
Due to the large number of people that had settled on his property, he resolved that instead of chasing them away, he would instead collaborate with them in order to coexist together in a mutually beneficial relationship. To this end, they held 4 (four) community meetings with the then LC chairmen of the affected areas in which they engaged over 200 people from this community.
The engagements resolved that he open up an office where every person that had interests in having a kibanja on his property could come and make a custom arrangement with him.
The office was started as agreed, and announcements were sent out using local point to point vans and community radios but despite his best efforts, less than 15 people turned up.
"We later discovered that when we engaged the community on the true ownership of the land, they started asking for their money back from the people that had sold them fake bibanjas and we believe this is what turned the Wakiso District land brokers involved in this matter into proper land grabbers"- Dr. Kaggwa.
Rise of Unknown Land Fraudsters.
In addition, Dr. Kaggwa claims that they also realised that the people that had from earlier engagements claimed to be interested in getting "Bibanja" on his land were not actually interested in having mutually beneficial agreements with him; as the landowner, they instead wanted to take absolute possession of his property by any means possible.
According to Dr. Kaggwa these people and the land brokers then organized themselves into a ‘force’ they nicknamed ‘Tutekewo Embera’ where they determined that they would force him to vacate or liquidate hi property by creating all kinds of difficult conditions for him and his family, and he has been dealing with their troubles for about 5 to 7 years.
"They have taken me through one hellish moment after another e.g. constantly destroying my crops, stealing my harvests, killing my animals, threatening my farm workers, digging up graves from other places and bringing the remains of unknown children and people to my property to scare me, carrying empty coffins to my land, among other unlawful things. They have even tried to get me arrested by the Police several times and the only thing that has kept me safe to this day is God and the truth!"- Dr. Kaggwa.
Manipulation of Political Leaders Begins:
When this group of perceived fraudsters in Wakiso district realized that it was going to be legally difficult to steal his property, they adopted another strategy of lying to political leaders about him, manipulating them, and setting them up for acted empathetic performances to gain deceptive sympathy.
"Here, the fraudsters gathered persons with disabilities, widows, elderly persons, children, people that had been compensated over 30 years ago and had left, and other people from places unknown, set them up before our leaders for the ‘performance’ of their lives, and made them claim that they had been unfairly evicted by Dr. Kaggwa`s from his land. These claims were delivered in greatly moving shows of sadness before our political leaders; all to get them to use their offices to steal my property". Dr. Kaggwa.
Dr. Kaggwa further claims that he witnessed one of these ‘performances’ and he was shocked, stunned and confused by everything that was happening because, when he attended this meeting, he knew beyond reasonable doubt that "I had never seen most of the people there that were claiming to be bibanja holders on my land" - Dr. Kaggwa.
He attended a rally organized by these fraudsters and went ahead to order my arrest, instructing the land fraudsters to take over his land in whichever way the RDC - Wakiso deemed fit. "He allegedly later even encouraged them using public media (Bukedde Radio/TV) to carry pangas and other crude weapons to fight me on my land. These utterances set me up for disaster to the extent that my very own life was directly threatened"- Dr. Kaggwa.
Dr Kaggwa noted that Shortly after this incident, on Wednesday, 18th January 2023, Hon. Medard Lubega Segona (MP Busiro East) made embarrassingly outrageous false utterances about him on the floor of parliament claiming that he had evicted over 2000 people from his land.
"I was shocked and extremely disappointed by the scathing declarations made about me on such a public platform. The least Hon. Segona could have done would have been to visit the locus to know the truth and witness the facts since as a member of his constituency, he also represents me in parliament"- Dr. Kaggwa.
Dr. Kaggwa further says that these leaders being moved by the stage worthy performances of these fraudsters made unfair proclamations that led to more damage to his property, as they incited the Wakiso (and Nansana) fraudster community to invade my farm for ‘free’ bibanjas.
"To this end, the fraudsters went ahead to even secure ‘bibanja buyers’ to immediately purchase the land as soon as the bibanjas had been distributed by the RDC and our resistance of these unlawful instructions, I believe is how the matter got to be presented in parliament"-DR. Kaggwa.
According to Dr. Kaggwa, in addition, on Monday 23rd January, 2023, the fraudsters organised a group of unknown people to vandalize his farm and terrorize his workers chiming that the minister told them to take over his land where he has been investing in various agricultural activities (like fish farming, poultry farming, herding cattle etc.) for over 30 years.
As a result, a lot of his infrastructure was destroyed by these people in broad day light. Later in the night, they broke down the houses on his farm in the name of the minister but Uganda Police stepped in and the culprits ran away.
This drama has caused him great pain, loss, fear and concern for himself, his investments and has cost him the dignity of his name.
"This is not a situation anyone with hard earned investments needs to be in"- Dr. Kaggwa.
Further Developments.
In light of the prevailing conditions, Dr. Apollo Kaggwa reported the case to the Uganda Courts of Law and he managed to secure court orders to refrain all interested parties on his land from disrupting the land until the case is heard and decided. However, despite serving these orders to the Wakiso District leadership, the orders were also not respected.
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