Two top Nakaseke District officials connived with a private surveyor to carve out more than 200 acres during the survey of Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) land between 2013 and 2014, the Commission of Inquiry into land matters has heard.
Evidence presented before Justice Catherine Bamugemerire yesterday indicates former Nakaseke District speaker Mr. Enock Nyongere and Mr. Geoffrey Tumusime, the Senior District land management officer connived with the Kinyogoga Sub-county Councilor Fred Rwabirinda, Mr. Emmanuel Champion (private surveyor), a six-member group led by a one Leuben Nduggu and ex-soldiers under the NRA veterans association and deliberately left out part of 36 square miles of land allocated to Kaweweta Military Barracks by the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) as residue before allocating it to themselves.
During the hearing attended by commissioners Robert Sebunya, Mary Oduka Ochan, Joyce Gunze Habaasa, Dr Rose Nakayi, Fredrick Ruhindi and George Bagonza Tinkamanyire at National Records Centre and Archives, in Nakasero, Justice Bamugemerire asked Tumusime to confirm that he and close relatives got a share of the land.
Tumusime responded that the claim was untrue.
Would you like to tell us, and be honest, whether you and your relatives applied for this land? What if we find out that one of your relatives applied, how do we get back to you, as a person who lied on oath?”
Tumisime responded; “I never applied. None of my relatives applied.” During the prodding by the assistant lead counsel John Bosco Sunza, Tumusime, however, stated that a group of people were given 200 acres near the barracks, and paid sh1.5m premium.
Sunza wondered whether Tumusime didn’t find it strange that a large group of claimed public land near an army facility. He said it bore hallmarks of land grabbing.
Sunza also quizzed Tumusime on chances that political leaders got land in the area but he denied being behind the land bonanza.
Tumusime was then faulted for failing his duty to superintend over government property before being arrested by Police who took him to Wandegeya Police Station where he spent the night undergoing further interrogation.
