Koseya Buule, a 79-year-old man at Buzzi village, Namulanda parish, in Wakiso district, is living in tears after a stranger grabbed his three and a half acres of land.
Buule says the man whom he later learnt is called Charles Kyagaba attacked and slashed part of his land and threatened to kill him if he dared to stop their activities. Buule has stayed on the same land for more than 50-years.
The victim is currently unable to walk or talk clearly after he suffered from a stroke which the family says resulted from disappointments from the police and the court system where he pursued justice in vain.
Kyagaba, according to Buule, his wife Mary Buule and son Hannington Kizito, first grabbed one and a half acres of land in 2005. Buule immediately filed a case of trespass and destruction of property at Kisubi police station and after getting no help, he moved to Kampala metropolitan south regional offices at Katwe.
“When police disappointed Mzee Buule, he went to court. He first took the case to Entebbe Chief Magistrates court. But the challenge is that Kyagaba does not stop. When he is defeated in one case, he files another. Sometimes he uses the non-existing squatters to sue. That is how he has frustrated the cases to date. But now he has grabbed two more acres of land and he has sold it,” Kizito explains his father’s land ordeal.
Confined in a wheelchair, Buule is devastated whenever trucks carrying building materials pass through his courtyard going to his grabbed acres of land. Kyagaba in some of the court documents claims he is a son to late Minani Gabriel who was a caretaker of a one and a half piece of which Buule had leased to one George Jjemba who died in a motor accident in the early 2000s.
A visit to Buzzi village revealed a very quiet environment. Some of the residents whispered to Uganda Radio Network (URN) that they fear Kyagaba because he threatened to take on whoever defends Buule.
“I have grown up knowing that it is Mzee Buule’s land. Minani left this village very many years ago and he was just a mere caretaker of land leased to George Jjemba. He bever mentioned at any one time that he had a child,” one of the neighbours said.
Kizito said Kyagaba has so far sold the land to more than 40 people in small plots. The biggest he has sold is 50 x 50 feet while the rest are 30 x40ft, 25 x 30ft or 40 x40ft. The majority of the buyers have or are setting up permanent structures.
“Kyagaba is powerful. Sometimes you go to report him to a police station and you find him chatting with the OC or DPC of the area. There are times when you report to the police and he gets to know all you have told the police even before you reach your home. He calls laughing at you. We are helpless,” Kizito said.
The Land Protection Police Unit (LPPU) at Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) has a full report about Kyagaba. In the report, LPPU commandant Charles Mutungi, D/SSP Mirondo Fred Paul and D/AIP Andama Joseph say Kyagaba grabs land, sells it in small portions and eventually creates squatters who he uses as a weapon.
