The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kikuube, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Two Bunyoro kingdom officials in Kikuube district are in police custody on allegations of extortion of up to Shillings 150million. The suspects are Gerald Baleke and Moses Busobozi, the chiefs of Buhaguzi and Kyangwali counties respectively under the Bunyoro Kitara kingdom.
They were picked up on Tuesday evening on the orders of the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC Amlan Tumusiime following numerous complaints from their victims. According to Tumusiime, the two officials are implicated in extorting money from more than 50 residents from Muhangaizima, Nyairongo, and Ngogoli villages in Kabwoya and Kyangwali sub-counties with promises of hiring them part of the Bugoma forest land that the kingdom leased to Hoima sugar limited for sugarcane growing.
He says the suspects deceived the residents that the kingdom had allowed them to hire out the land to the public. Tumusiime however says that the residents petitioned his office when they were blocked from accessing the land hired to them.
He summoned the duo to explain where they got the permission to hire out the land but their statements could not add up prompting him to order their arrest.
America Niwamanya, one of the affected residents says that she paid Shillings 10million to the suspects to hire 50 acres of land in Bugoma forest for cultivation in April this year. She however says that she was ejected a few weeks later by Hoima sugar-limited officials, saying that she was occupying the land illegally.
Benard Bikaka, another victim told URN that he paid Shillings 7 million to the suspects who allocated him 10 acres of land. He was also shocked when Hoima sugar limited officials ordered him to vacate the land.
Erick Wabwire, the officer in charge of the Criminal investigations department at Kikuube central police station, says that they have so far recorded statements from 25 people implicating the two kingdom officials for extortion.
Andrew Byakutaga, the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom prime minister has dismissed claims that they authorized the officials to hire out the land in question. Hoima Sugar Limited leased close to 22 square miles of the contested Bugoma Central Forest reserve land from the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom for sugarcane growing for 99 years.
However, the National Environment Management Authority-NEMA found that 13 of the 22 square miles, were unfit for a sugar plantation and recommended their preservation since it’s a wetland and forest reserve. NEMA allowed the Hoima Sugar factory to cultivate sugarcane on the remaining 9.24 square miles covering the grassland, establish an urban center on 1.26 square miles, an eco-tourism center on 1.97 square miles, and restore 3.13 square miles of the forest reserve.
They also recommended the preservation of another 0.156 hectares for the cultural site and 6.17 square miles as a natural forest.
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