The Kawempe North legislator Latif Ssebagala has provided tents to shelter residents of Lusaanja village who were evicted off their land by one Medard Kiconco.
According to Latif, it is worrying that seven families are staying under one roof with improper places of conveniences.
The legislator donated temporary shelters to more than 100 families and said he will petition the speaker over the same issue as these people are living a bad situation.
Latif made an impromptu visit to Sekanyonyi Village, Kawempe Division, and Kampala District, to assess the havoc caused by court bailiffs in what was meant to be an eviction of squatters on a 9.5 acre piece of land claimed by businessman Medard Kiconco.
Kiconco is the proprietor of Lexman Limited, a firm involved in civil, electrical and water engineering works. The firm recently ventured into the production of angle bars and other building materials at the industrial park adjacent to the land in dispute.
The land in dispute is part of a chunk of about 85 acres that the late Paul Bitarabeho bought in 1978 from the late mother of King Mwanga, Namasole Bagalaayeze Lunkusu. He set up a farm that stretched from Mpererwe in Kampala to Lusanja and Kitetikka villages in Wakiso.
Some of the land in Mpererwe was sold to the defunct Kampala City Council (KCC), and was gazetted it in 1996 as a landfill for garbage disposal.
That sale proved catastrophic. With time, effluent from the landfill permeated the wetlands and pastures, forcing the family to close the farm.
“With the farm closed, that huge tract of land was left unattended which attracted to start settling on it. Some of these claimed to have bought the land. They first encroached on the land in Lusaanja and Kitetikka.
It is difficult to establish who sold the land or allowed the squatters to settle on it. Samuel Kibuuka, the Lusanja Village chairperson, says it was sold by Crisper Bitarabeho, a sister to Paul Katabazai Bitarabeho, the administrator of the estate of the late Paul Bitarabeho, but Kiconco’s lawyer, George Muhangi, was quick to dismiss this.