By Del Wilbert Omony
There’s a growing concern in the entire country over issues of land grabbing by powerful, eminent and rich individuals from the poor communities.
Professor Tenywa Moses of Makerere University together with his wife a former civil servant working with the Electoral Commission of Uganda have been dragged to the authorities over accusations of grabbing land belonging to the Widow and orphans of the Late Eriyazale Giita formerly of Bbamba, Nangabo in Waking district.
It’s alleged that in 2011, while the late Giita was still alive, he sold a piece of land from his Kibanja to an organisation called AGINSIBA at a cost of 15,000,000/= as seen from the agreement between the late Giita and the representatives of the AGINSIBA. 10,000,000/= was paid as first part of payment and the five million shillings (5,000,000=) balance was supposed to be paid at a later date however to the surprise of the family after the demise of Giita , this organisation fraudulently acquired a land title on this piece of land without the knowledge of the late Giita. Its clear that all this was orchestrated by Professor Tenywa Moses who also doubles as a pastor in the same area of Bbamba together with his wife Harriet Tenywa. As if this was not enough for Professor Tenywa, he went ahead and created another land title on the same piece of kibanja this time around with even buying the same from the family without the consent of the beneficiaries of the estate which has left orphans and the widow wondering how a Professor who also doubles as a man of God could do such a heartless act of depriving orphans and the widow of the only source of survival.
Our investigations team has since established that this Professor and his wife a perennial land grabbers because even other people are crying foul of the same man and this was proved by fact that at some point he was dragged to court by his junior workers and co-directors at FOJJ Bbamba a community initiative company dealing in the manufacturing of home use knives and eventually the case was decided against him and the factory buildings and machinery was all broken down because he defrauded other directors at the time of buying the land and fraudulently put the company land title into his personal names and wanted to charge the company rent claiming the buildings and land belonged to him so court decided the buildings be removed of which affected the development of the area and the factory was shifted to Jokorelera along Buwambo Road and his membership counceled from FOJJ.
Professor Tenywa instead of being a good example the communities where he has business has turned out to be a course instead of a blessing in the petition which we have a copy of Zabali Christine and Eliyazale Giita both orphans of the late Giita formerly of Bbamba ran to the RDC Kasangati to seek for assistance realising that their entire land is being grabbed by Professor Tenywa and also sighting threats of this man of God evicting them from the home where they have lived since they were born and all the lower authorities have tried to call Professor Tenywa but has failed to even appear before the local authorities to give his side of the story.
This is the reason they have sought for a redress from the representative of the president within this area of the village.
And indeed the RDC Kasangati Mr Kyazze swang into action and summoned both parties and this time around Professor Tenywa appeared at the RDC’S office but even when the summons had asked both parties to to report at the RDC’S office with the relevant documents Professor Tenywa didn’t respect this and only came with a one Kakaire whom he introduced as his lawyer but later the family understood him as the Kakaire former DPC Kasangati police station who is undergoing PSU investigations for his involvement in fraud land evictions.
When the RDC asked Professor Tenywa to table his documents pertaining the transaction of the contested land he only bought out land titles which didn’t originate from the person he claims sold the land to him and the RDC postponed the meeting for another date for Professor Tenywa to bring valid documents including the sales agreements and photocopies of transfer forms which he claimed he had and on that day of the meeting Professor Tenywa still didn’t come with any valid documents as he had promised and the RDC decided to refer the matter to court for further management. The family has since instructed their lawyers to prepare the suit against the Professor and if court convicts him it will serve as a good example to all land grabbers and for the former DPC Kasangati once noticed decided to run away. The family continues to live in great fear because of Professor Tenywa since he has started cutting down their food crops and threatening to construct a permanent perimeter wall on their land in a way of gaining ground over this poor family.
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com