Maverick Internal Affairs minister Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire has declared a war on the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka and the junior minister in charge of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries accusing them of hypocrisy and misleading President Museveni concerning the ownership of the Njeru government stock farm land which is under threat of being grabbed by government officials and mafias.
The declaration resulted from last week’s cabinet meeting where the President directed the Attorney General to work with the ministry of lands and make sure that all fraudulent land titles placed on government land in Njeru in Buikwe district are cancelled with immediate effect.
The President who is also the National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairperson emphasised the issue of individuals involved in grabbing public land explaining that whoever benefited from the scum will be punished and will also lose the said land especially that of forestry.
However, reacting to the declaration, Otafiire assured Kiwanuka and Rwamirama that he is not ready to lose his land which he bought through using his hard-earned money noting that if any attempt is made to cancel his land title, he is going to sue the government.
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He insisted that the land he owns which situated on Block 295 plot 280 and 283 in Bukaya is not part of the stock farm.
He added that government is also illegally sitting on Block 295 plot 2.
The 1,099-acre farm located at Bukaya west village, in Njeru municipality, is one of the government farms managed under the National animal genetic resources centre and data bank which hosts a demonstration farm, a breeding centre and a research centre, among other facilities.
Otafiire wondered why Kiwanuka and Rwamirama are only concentrating on him well knowing that on the land there are more than 35 individuals with land titles and some of them are being represented in court by K&K Advocates a law firm owned by Kiwanuka himself.
Appearing on Kabaka Mutebi’s CBS radio, Otafiire wondered how can Museveni take Kiwanuka’s words seriously when he lied to Court that he doesn’t know the whereabouts of the missing people and later discovered that they were in government custody
“For me I’m very happy because all along they have been telling the president that I’m the only person who has a land title on that land but now they have accepted that they are more than 35 people with land titles and some of them are already in court suing government and Kiwanuka’s law firm is representing them, people should stop the hypocrisy,” Otafiire said
He boasted that he cannot be scared because of Kiwanuka’s position which makes him to be in good relationship with judges who are going to preside over his case noting that he is also a powerful person in the judiciary since he is a former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, sits in cabinet and in parliament.
According to documents, more than 504 acres of the farm’s land have been illegally acquired by individuals even though Otafire insists that he has all documents confirming his ownership of the said land.
Among documents the documents he claims to possess include a copy of certificate of title, sale agreement copies, a judgement of the Buganda Lukiiko on the land dispute, copies of letters of administration among others.
He also claims that the said land belonged to the family of the late Kato Fredrick and Christopher Lule who sold him the land.
“The deceased were the administrators of the estates of the late Enoka Sebowa and Gustar Seruwo who were the first proprietors of the land,” Otafiire’s document reads.
Justice Catherine Bamugemereire’s land probe findings on the said land revealed that Otafiire owns 50 acres of the land while former Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma owns 43 acres.
On several occasions, Otafiire has been accused of sending groups of armed men to destroy the government facilities and take possession of the land which he denied on CBS radio explaining that since he is not the commander of the army, the rightful person to answer why army is seen on the land should be the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Efforts to have Kiwanuka, Rwamirama’s comments over the matter where fruitless as our phone calls to their known phone numbers went unanswered by press time.
