UMSC in halt down over land disputes

The Uganda Muslim Supreme Council ( UMSC ) is up in arms with two residents in Jinja city over the ownership of more than 22 acres of land in the Jinja North division.

The land under contest is home to Bugembe Islamic Institute which is one of the biggest training centers for most of the Muslim clerics.

Following our investigations the two residents at the centre of the dispute Mr Amos Albert Igaga and Ms Angella Mukyala are currently at fronts.

They are believed to serve as a cover for both high ranking government official and former lawmaker in one of the constituencies in Jinja city.

However we tried to reach out to Mr Igaga and Ms Mukyala to verify the allegations but they were fruitless.

The chairperson of the board of trustees of Bugembe Islamic Institute Mr Usama Tariq petitioned various offices calling for cancellation of the title that was given to Mr Igaga and Ms Mukyala.

“ This award of title is impractical as one cannot have a title over another title. We believe it’s not only ridiculous but also illegal for one piece of land to have two separate certificates of title as it is in this case,” Usama wrote in a March 13 letter to Mr Sam Mayanja the junior lands minister.

However the issuance of the second title for the same property triggered a torrent of questions with the existence of an older title with a running lease which could have been detected via the plot,and volume numbers under the computerized land registry system.

The permanent secretary in the Lands ministry Ms Okalanyi Dorcus following an interview with our media said that it was inconceivable that the a land title could have been issued against another with a running lease.

“ An error could have occurred and it will be corrected if it happened,” she said adding that such cases will certainly be wiped out by the computerization of the land registry.”

Matters arising around the prime land in Jinja city have been difficult to deal with in the absence of a substantive city land board.

The city’s executive led by its mayor Mr Kasolo Peter tried to constitute a land committee since last February much as the process was halted after the Inspectorate of Government filed a petition in which they accused the mayor of following the wrong procedure of nominating members of the board.

However residents in Jinja town told our publication that the absence of a substantive board is fueling cases of connivance to commit cases of land fraud.

Mr Igaga and Mrs Mukyala’s application for a freehold title has particularly been called into questions.
Some of the owners of properties adjacent to that which a free hold title is sought append their signatures to a “Form 4”.

The form is then submitted to the area land committee for approval and onward transmission to the district land board which wasn’t the case with the duo application.

The application also had to have been endorsed by members of the land committee of Budumbuli village in Jinja North Division where the land is located but to our investigation however, established that the area does not have land committee.