SV: {UAH} NAKASERO PRIMARY SCHOOL

OKELLO DOKOLO,

I was thinking that the late OBOTE took that piece of land to AKOKORO!

Because I read somewhere in this UAH that the late OBOTE stole Buganda

land!

Ocaya pOcure

Den lördag, 30 maj 2015 10:33 skrev George Okello <opallog@gmail.com>:

Comrade Akim Odong,

Does your party UFA have a policy on the land grab issue in Buganda? I
have written on this several times. The background to the problem is
the Buganda Agreement of 1900 which was one one of the biggest land
grabs in the history of colonialism, immediately following the Berlin
Conference of 1884  which grabbed African land and divided it among
colonial powers. In Uganda, huge chunks of land were given to the
Kabaka and his chiefs in one great act of colonial land grab which
immediately rendered almost 90% of baganda peasants landless, Today, a
majority of these peasants still live and till this land as bataka,
squatters, and licensees. The land grab in one giant fell swoop
terminated all their historic and ancestral claims to their own land
and made them subjects ( slaves) of the Kabaka and his chiefs. Since
them. these mailo land-holding class has been keeping a tight hold
over this land and resisting all atempts to reform an open gaping
wound in Buganda society where descendants of an illegal colonial act
of grand larceny in 1900 control more than 75& of land in Buganda.In
the 1960's President Obote used executive powers to sequestrate some
of this land, which were converted into public use, a matter that many
baganda still complain about because of lack of compensation, and this
despite the fact Obote never confiscated this land for his own selfish
use and most of it was used to house government services like
hospitals, schools, administrative buildings, county and district
offices etc. In 1975, the dicatator Idi Amin passed the Land Reform
Decree, which paradoxically gave a lot of protection to the peasant
occuppiers because the decree made it impossible for mailo land owners
to evict peasants. One could say this then rendered the land
uneconomic, but for once I think I did honestly praise Idi Amin for
the egalitarian aspects of this decree which removed the tillers of
the land from the vagaries of commericalisation of land holding and
gave them legal security of tenure.

Now come Yoweri Musevini. In 1995, he came up with his Land Act which
abolished President Obote's nationalisations and repealed Idi Amin's
Land Reform Decree.He returned the legal status quo to pre-1966, with
just a few amendments to protect the peasants. The effect of Musevni's
act of revisionism was to restore Mailo Land holding with only very
minimal protection for the bataka or rural landless who are an
overwhelming majority of baganda. So what you have now is that with
respect to the schools that are being grabbed today:

1. The freeholds have been returned to the former owners, the largest
being Kabaka Mutebi. This land is managed for Mutebi by the Buganda
Land Board. The return of these lands, formerly nationalised by
President Obote, was achieved in a secret agreement called MOU between
Museveni and Mutebi. Many legal experts believe the MOU lacks legality
and is more a personal agreement between two political faction
leaders. Be that as it may, a majority of the leases on these returned
lands are now ending and reverting back to Mutebi as the freehold
owner. So what does Mutebi do with these returned lands? If the
example of the Nabageraka school and other properties in Kampala is to
go by, Mutebi and his Land Board are simply selling off these leases
to the highest bidder irrespective of the interests of the sitting
tenants, many of whom have made huge investments and developments on
the land. Mutebi and his Buganda Land Board so far have embarked on
denationalising all land that Obote had put into public use and are
quietly privatising them for private gain.

2. The Mailo landholdings by descendants of the colonial chiefs and
officials havenow been returned to the former owners who now have
unfettered accesss and control over them, with most encumbrances
imposed by the Amin Land Reform Decree removed. Most of the leases on
these lands are running out, and the mailo owners are not renewing the
leases to public bodies like schools etc, preferring instead to sell
to so-called "private investors" at mouth watering prices.

The Minsitry of Education, which admisnters some of these leases on
which are primary schools, markets and other public utilities are
corryptly seeling off the remainder of the leases to so-called private
investors or refusing to renw them after being bribed, meaning that
schools are then evicted from the land. The NRA regime claims not to
know that it is in fact officials of the Ministry of Education,
including the Deputy Minsiter according to Mrs Alupo, the new
Education Minister, who have been collaborating with the hopelessly
corrupt Uganda Land Commission to seel off leases of land on which
Kamapala primary schools sit.

In the rural areas, some of these mailo owners are selling off their
land at give away prices to private investers. It is from these rural
folk that the the NRA aparatchik and city bureaucrats have grabbed
huge chunks of land at a pittance. The tragedy is that wnenever land
is sold away by the mailo owner, the bataka and the squatters are sold
along with the land. Or to put it bluntly, they are made landless
because Museveni has removed most of the protection that Amin's Land
Reform Drecree provided. There is now a class of rural landless that
is fast growing in rural Buganda; these are the modern day slaves who
sooner than later will begin a titanic battle against land grabbers-
this is the real crisis that will engulf Buganda society in the next
generation- the struggle between the landed and the landless.

I dont know how all these translate into what is happening in Acholi,
but I think developments there are a harbinger of what is to come of
the new Uganda of class struggles we are enterring into, where
inevitably one has to take sides, either with the oppressor or the
oppressed. AS a marxist and national democrta, I know on whose side I
sit.  I know your political party does not have any policies other
than Federalism, but I think you need to develop a clear headed policy
on the land question, because soon it will become an albatross around
your necks, for it will become  untenable and even laughable for you
to say "I know what the problem is, but lets wait for Federalism first
before we can begin to think about a solution"

George Okello

On 5/30/15, George Okello <opallog@gmail.com> wrote:
> Frank Mujabi and WBK,
>
> Here is a positive development in this land grab saga. I have been
> informed the Nabagereka school wiil also soon be returned, or the
> Buganda Land Board and Mengo will face legal action because they are
> the ones who sold the land to a so-called investor. The Kabaka and the
> investor are promising to build another school for the children nearby
> and to give scholarships to all the current children whose education
> has now been disrupted by the land grab, but this is not good enough.
> The Kabaka really needs to wake up to what his officials at the
> Buganda Land Board are doing. He must come up with an ethical land
> policy otherwise he will find himself on the side of the landgrabbers
> and the oppressors in this saga which increasingly is pitting the poor
> against the rich and powerful, and is affecting mainly baganda.
>
> .George Okello
>
>
>
> Alupo cancels title for Nakasero school land
>
> Share  Bookmark Print Rating
> By  FARAHANI MUKISA
>
> Posted  Saturday, May 30  2015 at  01:00
> SHARE THIS STORY
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> inShare.
> Related Stories
>
> Alupo cancels title for Nakasero school land
>
>
> Kampala- Education minister Jessica Alupo has directed the Uganda Land
> Commission (ULC) to cancel all the titles of Nakasero Primary School
> land that were given to private investors.
>
> Ms Alupo stated that the lease was awarded to the developer without
> consultation of key stakeholders and ULC disregarded the school
> management's complaints about the deal.
>
> "Accordingly, therefore, this letter is to request you (ULC) to cancel
> the lease issued to Prestigious Apartments Ltd to enable the school
> repossess the said land for future development," Ms Alupo wrote to ULC
> on May 4.
>
> On August 19, 2010, ULC gave a 99-year lease on the school's land to
> Prestigious Apartments Limited for redevelopment. The disputed land is
> Plot 34A, Kyadondo Road. It measures about 0.68 acres, which forms
> part of the Nakasero Primary School football pitch.
> Alupo indicates in a letter dated September 22, 2011, that the school
> management committee, through its secretary, "queried the
> authenticity" of the lease to Prestigious Apartments Ltd.
> Attempts to get comments from ULC officials were futile as they
> promised to get back to us but never did.
>
> The Prestigious Apartments Ltd proprietors could not comment as the
> right person to speak on the matter was reportedly engaged in day-long
> meetings.
>
> Ms Alupo's directive comes on the heels of an ongoing investigation by
> a select committee of Parliament on the dubious sales of land
> belonging to various government schools in the city.
>
> The Committee members, led by Buvuma MP Robert Migadde, recently asked
> Alupo to halt all deals on the city schools' land until their
> investigations had been concluded.
>
> While appearing before the committee, Ms Alupo blamed her junior
> minister, Mr Charles Bakkabulindi, for signing land giveaway deals
> without her knowledge.
>
> Ms Alupo, in her directive, also blamed ULC for awarding the lease
> even when the Ministry of Education and Sports permanent secretary had
> advised against the deal.
>
> She cited the June 14, 2011 letter from her ministry to ULC, which she
> says, clearly indicated the ministry's position on the school's land
> in question. We could not readily establish what was contained in the
> said letter.
>
> Meanwhile, Kampala Capital City Authority has also lodged caveats on
> the land of Nakasero and Buganda Road primary schools.
>
> Several city schools, including Buganda Road, Nabagereka, Kitante and
> Kitebi primary schools and Kololo Secondary School, have had their
> land given to investors. The Nabagereka school structures were even
> demolished a few months ago.
>
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Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:  ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.