The Minister of State for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Sam Mayanja has disclosed that land titling discrepancies in Mukono are rooted in a mistake committee by colonial masters when the town was governed as a town board, with very few land titles, and with no arrangements underway as the town expanded.
Subsequently Mayanja said, as the town expanded, new titles came with the development while the blocks on which these titles were supposed to sit remained unaltered, thus putting in place more land titles sitting on limited land.
‘As a result’, he went further saying, “we see leases without blocks, people took loans on the weight of these fake titles, and I am here to stress the point that all these fake titles are going to be cancelled; people concerned are business people and they are bound to meet losses as a result of these criminal activities.”
Dr. Mayanja was on Wednesday addressing land owners in Mukono Municipality who attended a public hearing over the state of affairs following disclosure of anomalies in titling after introduction of the digitalized land information system. The public hearing was held at Mukono Ministerial Zonal Office (MZO).
He disclosed that the double titling and overlapping titles were discovered in 2010 following introduction of the computerized system directed to become operational by President Museveni to address the continuous public outcry of too many titles on limited land.
In her address, the Principal Assistant Secretary (PAS) at Mukono MZO Doreen Tumushabe appealed to people holding titles on land that is questionable to turn up for clearance as requested in a media advertisement.
She assured concerned parties that they will be given audience and fair hearing, adding that they have four registrars who are well versed with land matters, and disclosed that after getting people’s views, the commissioner will issue an amendment order which will determine which titles are to be cancelled and which ones to stay.
She said the discrepancies lie with land comprised in blocks 190, 193 and 170, and that because the system used then was manual, it was easy for manipulators to go ahead without being easily identified until the second phase of the land information system became operational.
Tumushabe noted that in the face of these anomalies, top management decided to put to a halt all activities pending streamlining and clarification of the system.
