Opposition leader and former FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye is up in arms against the government through the National Leadership Institute for forcefully acquiring/grabbing his land at Sunga in Kyankwanzi district.
Dr. Besigye says NALI Director Brig. David Kasula directed UPDF to fence off hundreds of acres of Besigye’s titled land “with impunity” and started developments despite all irrefutable evidence of ownership and protests.
But a local source familiar with the land dispute but prefers anonymity retaliates government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo’s 2016 accusation of Besigye of land grabbing in Kyankwanzi and Kiboga districts.
“It is true that man (Besigye) owns a square mile here in Kyankwanzi that he did not buy,” source says.
“Besigye acquired the land which was initially public land, in the late 1980s after the National Resistance Army (NRA) captured power. He did not do this alone but so did a number of senior ruling party officials and military officers displacing people from big chunks of land in Kiboga and Kyankwanzi.”
After acquiring the land, Besigye made legal transfers and acquired the land title for it measuring one square mile then.
Dr Besigye last year said the NRM government was resorting to land to raise resources out of desperation and need to survive.
“Part of this extreme urgency to take over land in northern Uganda is to negotiate resources. It is part of the survival of the regime. It is now an urgent matter because they have been waiting for oil but it has kept running away from them,” he said.
