A family in Katabi Sub County, Entebbe Municipality in Wakiso District is living in shock after a section of its members have been implicated in rebel activities but asked to surrender part of their ancestral land to State House Land protection Unit as a condition to be set free.
The family of the late Charles Kisitu Furu has now appealed to President Museveni and all authorities to intervene and prevail over the officials who allegedly arrested, tortured and detained them on purported rebel related charges before asking them to give them one and a half acreage of land at Nkumba – Bbendegere in Katabi Sub County.
The family members have accused the State House Land Protection Unit officials Commanded by Brig Gen Moses Lukyamuzi of slapping them with rebel and terrorism related charges before demanding one and half acre plot of land from them.
It is alleged that high profile security officials work with police, local leadership and land brokers have since started to bring pseudo buyers superimposing them on the family ancestral land at Nkumba – Bbendegere in Katabi Sub County.
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Family members said that the pseudo people come with forged sale or purchase agreements which they present and upon challenging them, they are arrested and taken to police where they are charged with criminal trespass and threatening violence cases.
On February 26, 2025, a group of armed soldiers both in uniform and plain clothes invaded the land and arrested Ivan Ntege the caretaker of the land and two of his workers including Paul Mukisa and Abbas Senabulya.
It is alleged that the three men were held in a nearby bush before they were driven in a drone to Mengo, in Kampala at the offices of the State House Land Protection Unit.
Ntege, who is now nursing an injured right eye said that the land measuring about seven acres belongs to the family of the late Charles Kisitu Furu but there is a cartel of unscrupulous persons who are using all the tricks to grab it.
“I was arrested by soldiers who beat me and my workers; they tortured us while accusing us of forming a rebel group. They found us working on our land and they started asking for pangas accusing us of belonging to the M23 rebel group, and that we are of Rwandese origin, and that we have to explain when we entered Uganda,” Ntege cried.
He added: “Imagine asking where I came from when they found me on the land where I was born and raised? They found us using walkie Talkies because the phone network near the lake is bad. So they used that as a basis to beat us and ask for the administrator of the land.”
According to Ntege, during their arrest, they were told that they have a case to answer but to their surprise the soldiers did not even report to the area police or even the Police in Entebbe even though they were driven to Kampala amid beatings.
“Upon reaching Mengo, they (soldiers) subjected us to interrogation mainly in regards to our tribes and asked us how Rwandese came to the land and more so one of the soldiers vowed to imprison me for a month until I sign for them a land agreement,” he narrated.
He revealed that they were paraded before Brig Lukyamuzi at Mengo but he did not mention anything.
The soldiers continued interrogating them until they called another man they identified as counsel who asked them to sign a sales agreement for the land in order to be released.
Ntege added that from Mengo they were driven to Kireka SIU by a soldier identified as Amudan Mukiibi who kept threatening to kill them.
To their surprise, the following day, the head of the detention facility at Kireka released them and gave them transport.
“The soldier at Kireka sent us back to Mengo to pick our property but on reaching there, everyone abandoned us and they instead decided to make phone calls until they rearrested us and took us back to Kireka instead of giving us our property. We were driven back to Kireka and accused of plotting to overthrow the government,” said Ntege.
He re-counted that the detention head who they identified as Musa told them that Afande Ddamulira (head of crime intelligence) ordered for their release and that they were released without any documentation but ordered to return to Mengo office on March 21.
“We are wondering, if there is a case against us, why then are they asking us to sign land sale agreements and present them to the administrator who does not stay in the area? And they said on March 21, there will be a meeting but for what? I appeal to the State House Anticorruption Unit and Criminal Investigations and CMI to intervene in this matter,” he appealed.
Ntege revealed that the soldiers are working with a relative identified as Patrick Kisitu and a former family lawyer Fahad Wasswa with a host of brokers to disenfranchise them of the land ownership.
On his part, Mukisa said that they are living in fear of being abducted again and hurt since they kept asking them for the whereabouts of guns and pangas which they did not have.
“I sustained injuries and got stomach problems and since then, I have been on medication,” he added.
When contacted on Friday, Brig Gen Lukyamuzi could not comment on the matter saying he was not in position to do so.
He added that he needed time to consult his staff to know the person handling the said complaint and how far they have moved with the investigations.
He promised to get back to us after making consultations.
Patrick Kisitu, a family member who is among the accused parties dismissed the accusations saying that he was also among the people who were being sought after by the soldiers.
He explained that the accusations against him and the lawyer (Wasswa) are baseless and stem from the struggle on who should take care of the family estate.
“I have taken care of the family property for many years and I have been in these battles alone but they are fighting me because of mere three-acre land which I sold and provided them with the accountability for the money,” Kisitu explained.
He revealed that the arrest is about the Kibanja holder who was denied access but Kisitu could not divulge into the matter.
