EXPOSED: Inside Shs38bn land scandal at UETCL that may sink top government bosses

By Our Reporter

At the prompting of the President who he says directed him to inquire into circumstances under which titles continue to be issued in favor of private individuals owning land in swamps and wetlands, State Minister for Lands Dr. Sam Mayanja has exposed a huge scandal involving a syndicate of officials at different government ministries.

Mayanja says that as a result of this criminal connivance, the GoU has already lost Shs28bn paying compensation to access and use what already is its land. Speaking to reporters at his Ministry offices during a Thursday news conference, Dr. Mayanja said it’s a huge syndicate that has had to involve officials at the Attorney General’s chambers, Finance Ministry, his own Ministry of Lands, the courts of law and Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL). Mayanja says he is doing all this (taking clear risk which could even prompt members of the thieving cabal to bump him off) because he is sure the President is behind him.

That he is making all these interventions to fulfill the President’s directive requiring the Lands Ministry to save the taxpayers money while amplifying acceleration of large government projects by ensuring that speculators don’t wrongfully acquire land in wetlands which they proceed to use to claim billions in compensation or else they run to court seeking to block large government infrastructure projects.

The latest scandal Mayanja has vowed to go down exposing relates to the 132KV power transmission line (from Namanve to Luzira passing through Bweyogerere, Namboole, Bugolobi etc) which UETCL has been tasked to accomplish using both GoU funding and of donors. Mayanja says the power transmission project should ordinarily cost the GoU much less if it’s not for the connivance of powerful government officials who keep creating fictitious PAPs who proceed to fraudulently extract a lot of money from the government as compensation for them to surrender the land for the project. Mayanja says there is no doubt officials at UETCL know these fictitious PAPs don’t deserve even a coin in compensation because the Namanve-Luzira stretch is a wetland (and therefore public land) belonging to the GoU in whose name they are criminally paying out these billions.

At the Thursday news conference, Dr. Mayanja revealed that even when he is taking on this as an assignment from the President, he finds his hands tied in a multiplicity of ways because, even when he clearly sees that some of the culprits are from his Ministry, there isn’t much he can do to them because of the legal constraints in his way. He admitted there is no way the issuance of such fraudulent land titles can succeed without technocrats in his Ministry playing ball. “Because my hands are tied, I have done all the investigations and written to the IGG sharing all the details and calling on her to intervene and stop all this fraud because the law empowers her to do so,” Mayanja said adding that he has also directed the Commissioner Land Registration John Karuhanga (whose innocence in this matter he doubts) to lodge a “Commissioner’s caveat” on those titles so that no further processing or action is taken on them until the conclusion of the IGG investigations.

The Minister also said he is certain that a lot of people from his own Ministry must be involved. Without giving specific names, Mayanja said people at the rank of valuers, surveyors, cartographers and registrars of titles must inevitably have been part of or acquiesced to the syndicate resulting in the fraudulent titling. The man from Mityana asserted there is no way the IGG can find any difficulties using her powers to unmask all the thieving cabal members involved in this fraud because, using his personal investigative skills and network, he has furnished her with more than enough evidence. Mayanja said he would quickly crack the whip himself because he knows everything but his hands are tied under the law which only permits the IGG to undertake some of the desired actions.

Saying it would be betrayal of the President and people of Uganda for him to just keep quiet about all this glaring fraud, Mayanja said the IGG must also inquire into the circumstances under which the Commissioner Land Registration consented to the issuance of the 8 titles whose authenticity he is disputing.

He then proceeded to reveal the titles that were issued to enable the fictitious PAPs to successfully claim Shs28bn compensation from the government. The controversial Minister, who has practiced land law as a private lawyer for the last 35 years, enumerated the owners of the disputed titles (relating to what he says is clearly government land) to include Delmas Apartments Ltd of P.O Box 9011 Kampala whose title is particularized as “Volume 4143 Folio 2 Kibuga Plantation Road Plot 14 at Bugolobi.” The others include Flavia Muntuyera of P.O Box 6714 Kampala whose newly issued title is particularized as “Leasehold Register Volume 4143 Folio 3 Kibuga Plantation Road Plot 16 Bugolobi.” The other beneficiary is Asuman Irunga of P.O Box 2043 Kampala whose title is particularized as “Freehold Register Volume KCCA 232 Folio 373 Folio 19 Kibuga Luthuli Drive Plot 12A land at Kampala.”

Flavia Muntuyera of the same address appears again in relation to “Leasehold Register Volume 4144 Folio 7 Kibuga Plantation Road Plot 28-40 Land at Bugolobi.” Asuman Irunga too appears again in relation to “Leasehold Register Volume 4130 Folio 14 Kibuga Plantation Road Plot 41 Land at Kampala.” There is also Aisha Mulungi of P.O Box 27190 Kampala whose land is particularized as “Leasehold Register Volume 4130 Folio 13 Kibuga St. Kizito Close Plot 8 Land at Bugolobi.”

Dr. Mayanja is also equally intrigued about Irene Kwera of P.O Box 6714 Kampala and wants the IGG to inquire into the circumstances under which she became the registered owner of the land particularized as “Freehold Register Volume KCCA 232 Folio 21 Nakawa Division Bypass Close Plots 1-4, 5-7, 8-11 Land at Bugolobi.” Last but not least, Dr. Mayanja is also furious and contesting the circumstances under which Prestigious Apartments Ltd of P.O Box 9011 Kampala came to be the owner of land particularized as “Leasehold Register Volume 4149 Folio 15 Kibuga Plantation Road Plots 18-26 and 10-12Lnd at Bugolobi.”

The Minister, who says he must clean up all the rot in land management and expose fraudsters to increase Gen Museveni’s popularity between now and 2026, wants all the above titles to be cancelled and some people criminally prosecuted at the conclusion of the IGG investigations which he says should take a very short time because all the evidence of wrongdoing is already available. That all the IGG must do is to ride on the information he has provided her with to catch the small fish (the proxies being fronted) who then will be squeezed to reveal their true godfathers using their government positions to provide them cover.

Veiledly going after people at the AG Chambers, Dr. Mayanja told reporters that basing on this fraudulent titling of public land/wetlands (which he says can only be titled with express Cabinet authorization), Asuman Irunga & 14 others proceeded to file a civil suit against the Attorney General, UETCL & Commissioner Land Registration demanding for compensation. Before the case could go very far, the three defendants (well knowing the same is public land) called for an out of court settlement resulting in a consent judgment whose authenticity the court ratified making it binding on the government.

And it was on the strength of this curious consent judgment that the powerful UETCL Accounting Officer (CEO/MD) Mr. George Rwabajungu proceeded to part with Shs28,852,785,003 in favor of what the Minister dismisses as fictitious PAPs (because they were never entitled to any compensation because the Namanve-Luzira wetland stretch is public land belonging to GoU under the law).

Dr. Mayanja says the Commissioner Land Registration must immediately object to this titling using what is technically known as “Commissioner’s Caveat.” He has also, in writing, advised the IGG Beti Kamya to use her powers to direct the powerful UETCL MD to immediately stop the phased pay out of the Shs28bn. Mayanja says that the UETCL officials involved tactfully used the consent judgment to dubiously reduce the fictitious PAPs’ claim from Shs38bn that had originally been claimed (under consolidated Civil Suits 254,256,258,263 & 271 of 2017) to Shs28bn. They will, once challenged, be able to argue that the consent judgment was productive because it enables GoU to save Shs10bn. This being Uganda, they could go as far as demanding for some “handshake” to appreciate the patriotism they exhibited at the negotiations resulting in Shs10bn being saved! Mayanja wants the IGG inquiry to result in the money (Mr. Rwabajungu has so far paid out over Shs8bn) being refunded and the culprits put on trial.

Besides writing to UNRA demanding an inquiry into the billions that were paid out to PAPs in relation to the Entebbe Expressway (which he says is all wetland and therefore public land), Dr. Mayanja vowed to prompt the President to inquire into PAPs’ claims relating to the 1500kms Hoima-Tanga East African Crude Oil Pipeline. Dr. Mayanja says he has credible information that some of the mighty in government have been facilitating the settlement of fictitious PAPs in the Lukoola areas where they have since been curiously facilitated to acquire land titles which are now being used to claim billions in compensation to pave way for the pipeline. The fire-spitting Mayanja asserted that all that would be nugatory expenditure because much of the land in Lukoola actually belongs to the GoU implying no one should be compensated for it.