Mbarara,
By Devine Atwine.
Residents in two villages of Kashenyi and Kyarwamaganda, Rubaaya Sub County, Kashari, Mbarara District, have accused Stanly Katembeya, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) chairperson, of grabbing their land.
They also accused him of threatening to harm them and forcing them to vacate their land adjacent to his farm because he wanted to expand his farm.
Aggrieved residents are now worried as the accused maintain that the land belongs to them, adding that they must leave the land or they risk being evicted forcefully.
The land in question is 40 hectares, according to Robert Bazarwa. Over 50 residents in Rubaaya, Mbarara District, are now crying for justice.
They seek Col. Edith Nakalema’s intervention since the local leadership and security, including the police, were influenced by bribes.
Security operatives led by Kushaba Nathan, the Gombolola internal security officer (GISO), Rubaaya subcounty, decried a sense of impunity exhibited by the FDC chairman in grabbing people’s land by force.
According to Bafunza David and Kamukama Joice, LC1 chairpersons, Kyamakanda and Kashenyi cells respectively, Katembeya doesn’t want anyone around his farm located in the same place.
Kamukama said that Katembeya owns over one square mile of land in Rubaaya, but he also wants all residents neighboring his farm to sell him and go so that he can expand his farm.
She also claims that he drives his cows to one of the residents’ banana plantations in order to frustrate and force them off the land in a squabble.
She further told the Newsfeed that the FDC boss didn’t stop at grabbing land but also circulated leaflets threatening to harm them if they didn’t want to leave the land.
One of the leaflets dumped at Robert Bazarwa’s place, part of which was written in “Runyankole”, asked Robert to either surrender part of the land and sell it, or they would harm him.
However, the accused, one Katembeya, trashed the allegations, claiming that the land in question belongs to him and he is not forcing anyone out of their land.
He added that he has genuine documents for all his land that prove his ownership, adding that whoever protests them should run to the courts of law.
However, he only confirmed that his cows mistakenly destroyed one of the residents’ banana plantations at night, but he is ready to settle the matter with him on a friendly basis if he wants, but if he doesn’t want to settle it then, he is ready to battle him in court.
On the issue of threatening leaflets, Samson Kasasira, the PRO for the Rwizi region, said that it is a security issue, so the police and other security operatives will take it up for serious investigations.
He added that whoever is behind the circulation of threatening leaflets will be arrested and brought before the courts of law for prosecution.
