Goons Attack UCU Workers at Ntaawo Farm

Five casual laborers of Uganda Christian University-UCU are nursing injuries at Allan Gallupin Health Center II following an attack on the university farm at Ntaawo in Mukono Central Division on Friday night. 

The injured are Bosco Turyatemba, Bruce Tukesiga, Gideon Muhumuza, William Tumwebaze and Nelson Kibibi. They were attacked by machete wielding goons numbering about 30 men who cut them on the head, hands and back.

According to the victims, the attackers were backed by three armed LDUs who accused them of trespassing on private land. John Remmy Amara, the Supervisor of the UCU Land holdings at Ntaawo notes that about two weeks back they were involved in a fracas with Christopher Kiiza who showed up claiming ownership of the university farm land. 

He explains that Kiiza showed up with surveyors to open up boundaries and create access routes from Ntaawo main road to the farm but they took off when the university alerted Mukono police division. The contested land measures about 5 acres. 

Amara notes that they tasked the claimant to produce the purchase of agreement of the land but he hasn’t responded to their demand. He says that despite trying to involve the RDC, police has declined to register their complaint of criminal trespass and destruction of property.

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URN visited the contested farm on Saturday morning and found several trees cut down, sweet potatoes and cassava uprooted. The pit latrine for the casual laborers was also pulled down. The farm manager, Milton Habwomugisha, says the new claimant has hired gangs from Bweyogerere to stop them from utilising the land.

 

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Turyatemba, one of the casual laborers told URN on his sick bed he lost conscious after he was hacked on the head. “I can’t tell how I reached the health facility.  All what I remember is seeing a group of men asking us what we were doing on their land before they started beating us,” Turyatemba said.     

The Deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, Luke Owesigyire has denied claims that police have declined to enter a case filed by the university and advises management report at the police to record statements for investigations to begin.   

David Mugawe the UCU Deputy Vice Chancellor in Charge of Finance and Administration says that they have repeatedly tried open a case with police in vain. He attributes the problem to the removal police post at Ntaawo that was created after the 2016 fracas when the a team of Bishops led by the Archbishop Stanley Ntangali were attacked in the same area.   

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Church of Uganda owns 649.2 acres of land donated to it by the family of the late Ham Mukasa in 1921. Its ownership was later transferred to Bishop Tucker Theological College, the present-day Uganda Christian University-UCU. 

But a big portion of the land is now occupied by encroachers, many of whom have built permanent structures including commercial and residential houses. Records show that the area has more than 1,000 settlers.