The Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi has secured an injunction from Masaka High court halting all activities on a contested piece of land in Mijwala sub county in Sembabule district.

The land ownership is being claimed between Buganda kingdom on one side and the state minister for Health Anifa Kawooya Bangirana and six other people on another side. 

Masaka High court deputy registrar Julius Borore directed Kawooya who also doubles as the Mawogola West constituency MP to halt the ongoing developments on the disputed land until a suit instituted against her by the kingdom is resolved. 

Kawooya alongside former Sembabule LC V chairperson Dr Eli Muhumuza, Benon Kuteesa Burora, Alfred Mbasa Nabasa, Samuel Mushabe had started constructing private structures on part of Mijawala sub-county land after claiming ownership.

However, the Kabaka in the capacity as the registered trustee of Buganda kingdom estates sued Kawooya and others accusing them of encroaching on the land, which he describes as the official customary mailo land, traditionally belonging to the Mijwala sub-county, a local government structure that was also adopted by the central government. 

Through his lawyers; Eliakim Kumumanya and Edward Mukwaya, the Kabaka also sued the Sembabule District Land Board and the commissioner Land Registration for erroneously facilitating the issuance of certificates of ownership on the disputed land.

They applied for an interim injunction to restrain the defendants from utilising the disputed land for their personal benefits until the main case is determined, which has been granted. 

Court has instructed the parties to prepare their defences for the main suite whose hearing is slated to commence on April 14, 2022.  However, Kawooya insists that she legally procured the disputed land from the rightful owners from whom she also obtained a genuine certificate of ownership, which was later transferred in her name.

Kawoya says she intends to use the same land to construct a community nursing school, saying that she is ready to defend her interests in the courts of law. Notably, squabbles of land ownership involving the Buganda kingdom and notable persons are not new in Sembabule district.

In 2020, the district was involved in a similar dispute with the kingdom after it undertook to construct a permanent commercial building next to the district headquarters without the approval of the latter. - URN/The Observer