By Nasser Kasozi Akandwanaho
City Businessman, Proprietor of Akright Projects Mr.Anatoli Kamugisha cries for Government to help clean the ministry of land housing and urban development as some of the public officers in steady protecting public interest have resorted to fraudulently transferring tittles in connivance with notorious city thugs.
Mr.Anatoli Kamugisha was last week challenging the registration of another title on one of his estates along Entebbe road which had been transferred fraudulently.
The hearing was before Mr. Akim Bagu, a legal officer in the Department of Land Registration.
Mr. Kamugisha alleges that he realised that the ministry had issued a title on Plot 42, Block 405 Busiro, which is located in Wamala Cell, in Kajjasi Town Council, Wakiso District.
The new title issued on Plots 555 to 700, which he subdivided and sold after amalgamating Plot 42 and 487, is registered in the name of Rogers Kawalya.
“I only realized this fraud when more than 150 clients who bought plots in my estate attacked me saying someone claiming to be having a title on the land had come to evict them. I was only rescued by the police but by the time I came to find out in the Ministry, my reputation had been put into question,” Mr. Kamugisha said.
At the hearing, the legal office had the two files. The questionable file indicates that the proprietor on the title is a one Twaha Damulira and was transferred to Mr. Kawalya, who entered on the title under the name of his company Kawi Agricultural Investments.
But, at the hearing, Mr. Kamugisha came along with an old man Hajj. Twaha Damulira, who first sold the land to Mr. John Baptist Muwonge, the owner of Cooper Complex in Kampala.
Mr. Muwonge, according to the records on the other file, is the one who sold the 15.9 acre land to Mr Kamugisha in 2007.
Mr. Kawalya and his purported seller Damulira whose photo on the file represents a young man were not present despite being invited for the hearing.
Hajj Damulira denied knowing the youthful Damulira ever being a member of his family or even seeing him before. M.r Bagu said he was going to compile a report to the Commissioner within two weeks before the parties are called back for the verdict.
The village chairperson, Mr. John Ssemwezi, told Daily Monitor after the hearing that the new Damulira and Mr. Kawalya are not known residents of the area but they have been “threatening to evict people”.
Mr. Kamugisha said in the event that the new title is upheld by the Ministry, he would be on the verge of losing more than Shs75b in compensating the 150 people that are settled on his estate.
Early this week ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has made modifications to the new land titles, which will bear security features to guard against fraud and forgeries in land transactions.
Under the new arrangement, for anyone to access their certificate of title from the ministry, they must be coded with holders’ National Identification Numbers (NINs), according to a public notice published in the national gazette on February 1.
According to the acting Commissioner for Land Registration Mr. Robert Opio said in the gazette that each Certificate of Title to be issued by the Ministry will have a unique matrix bar-code imprinted on it whereas the Mobile Phone contact and email address of the registered owner shall also be imprinted on the Certificate of Title against his or her registered name.
“I hereby modify the forms of Freehold, Mailo and Leasehold Certificates of Title provided for under the Third Schedule to the Registration of Titles (Cap 230) and the Forms for Condominium of Title provided for under the Third Schedule of the Condominium Property Registrations 2002, which modified forms shall come into operation with effect from the date of publication of this notice,” reads part of the notice.
He said that new features are meant to curb the rampant fraudulent land acquisition
