Kampala Central Member of Parliament Muhammad Nsereko has cautioned President Yoweri Museveni to stay away from Buganda Kingdom’s mailo land tenure system saying that the President will not be able to win the battle.
Recently, Museveni opened up a war on mailo land describing it as an evil tenure system and one of the major causes of land dusputes in the country. He wants the system abolished.
Museveni’s move has since sparked outrage among some sections of public.
Now Nsereko says Museveni wants the Baganda to kneel before him over the the issue but they will not. The legislator notes that the people in Buganda will instead explain their points to make him understand that mailo land is not harmful as he claims.
“Mailo land is owned by both Baganda and non-Baganda. The President may have been ill-advised that that’s the best way to face off with people from Buganda but this involves people from the whole country. The President will not win this battle,” Nsereko said while appearing on NBS’s Morning Breeze show on Tuesday.
Nsereko added that Museveni didn’t talk about the Mailo land issue during elections because he knew how dangerous and volatile it is.
” Evictions can be done on both public and private land. The greed by some leaders now is that they want to control everything, our land, cars. What we are saying is ‘Ettaka lyaffe tolikwatako’ , ‘Emmotoka zaffe temuzikwatako’,” he said.
“The issue the President has is that people hike compensation prices when government wants to use part of their land for development, but he can handle this differently.”
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com