LAND PROBE DEMANDS 46 TITLES FOR KAYUNGA FOREST RESERVES

The chairperson of the probe team into land matters, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire (right), talks to some locals while touring Bajo Forest Reserve in Kayunga District on Wednesday. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA THE MONITOR

By TOM MALABA

The commission investigating land matters has directed the former registrar of Mukono M-zone, Ms Loella Ataro Bogere, to avail them details of 46 plots of land in Bajjo and Kiura forest reserves in Ggaliraya and Bajjo sub-counties in Kayunga District.

Ms Ataro, a senior registrar of titles in Bbale M-zone, appeared on Friday before the land commission to testify in a matter involving alleged of grabbing 2,000 acres of land in Bajjo, Wamale, and Kiura forest reserves in Ggaliraya and Bbale sub-counties in Kayunga District.

“My Lord, in the witness summons I received, I was supposed to testify in a case involving Block 100, Plot 171 in Wamale, Bajjo, and Kiura forests. But when I gathered the documents, I found that I had no hand in issuing that title,” Ms Ataro told the land probe commission chaired by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.

Ms Ataro then requested for more time, saying she had been issued with a fresh list of plots for which she had to find the required documents.

She is expected to explain how 46 land titles were created in a forest reserve after the Kayunga District Land Board denied creating plots of land in the forest reserve.

Justice Bamugemereire of granted Ms Ataro until tomorrow to bring the right documents.
Ms Ataro was set to testify as the first technical person in a case where National Forestry Authority petitioned the land probe to investigate illegal titling, transfer and change of land use in Bajjo, Wamale and Kiura central forest reserves.

On Wednesday, Justice Bamugemereire and her team toured the areas to assess the extent of the degradation vested on the forest reserve.
They saw where GM Sugar Company cleared an entire Wamale forest and planted sugarcane.

While in Kiura Forest Reserve, the chairperson and other commissioners, observed how bull dozers destroyed part of the forest to plant sugarcane.

Led by Mr Leo Twinomuhangi, the coordinator of policy and planning in NFA, the commission team saw the multiple user system where NFA allowed cattle grazers and cultivators to use the forest land, but Justice Bamugemereire dismissed it as another form of encroachment.
The commission later held a meeting at Ggaliraya Sub-county headquarters in Kayunga where residents accused State House workers of grabbing the forest reserve land.

Land tittles in contention

Land titles. Among the land titles that the probe team wants to look at include Block 155, Plots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in Baizo in Bajjo Sub-county. Ms Ataro is also to produce documents related to Block 156, Plots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 at Baizo in Bajjo Sub-county, as well as Block 157, Plots 1 and 2 at Kataigwa, Block 159 Plots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Kataigwa.
There are also documents in relation to titling of land on Block 160, Plots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 at Kataigwa.