The justice Bamugemereire Lands Probe commission is back to Lwera wetland in the district of Kalungu after yet another dispute erupted between businessmen Joseph Ssebalamu and residents of Kamuwunga landing site.
A commissioner on the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, Doctor Rose Nakayi, is leading a team of investigators to examine residual land disputes in Masaka region.
Initially, the commission concluded its public hearing in Masaka region early last month, but Nakayi says several additional complaints have been registered from the area prompting a return. One of the complaints was submitted by a group of residents threatened with eviction to pave way for sand mining in Lwera.
The residents led by Peter Kavuma petitioned the commission, accusing Kampala-based businessman John Ssebalamu of displacing them from the land to expand his commercial sand mining business in the Lwera.
Kavuma says Ssebalamu's agents are conniving with some local leaders to compromise a section of residents in a plot to annex the whole landing site to his sand mine.
The biggest part of the landing site is fenced off with a lot of excavation despite the contention on its ownership. The disputed land measures about 300 acres, with a public primary school, a Church, a community playground, a Mosque, an outreach shelter for healthcare services, permanent homes and gardens among structures.
Kavuma told the commission that they are living in fear because occupants are now highly exposed to great risks of drowning in ditches dug in the area.
Remegio Kayemba, another affected resident told the commission that the disputed land has under suspicious circumstances been changing ownership. He doubted the authenticity of the said land title, challenging the commission to critically examine the process through which it was acquired.
50-year-old Sarah Nantale, one of the affected residents noted that for all the period she has occupied the land, nobody has ever asked them for rental fees (Busuulu), wondering how they can be evicted without being a fair hearing.
They asked the commission to expedite the investigations with prayers to be saved from the eviction.
Dr Nakayi has assured residents of a thorough study of the dispute urging all parties to cooperate whenever called upon.
