Mayor Evicts District Office to Protect City Plots from Grabbers

The Jinja city mayor, Peter Kasolo, on Saturday issued a five-day ultimatum, instructing authorities at the Jinja district local government to relocate their administrative unit to their area of jurisdiction, citing numerous cases of illegal sale of public land and fraud.

Fed up with the repeated land grabbing in the city being perpetrated by district officials, Kasolo says that the continued stay of the Jinja district's administrative unit is frustrating the smooth execution of the city's development agenda. HE accuses some elements within the district setup of deliberately usurping their powers and such actions are deterring line officials from fully serving the people's interests.

While addressing members of the general public who had converged at the Jinja city hall over the increasing cases of illegal land giveaways, Kasolo stresses that much as the city is an independent administrative unit, a section of officials at the Jinja district headquarters have continued to spearhead the vice of land grabbing before selling off the same to unsuspecting developers.

Kasolo notes that his office has registered about 20 cases of public land being illegally allocated to developers through the Jinja district land board, which lacks powers to perform such duties within the city.

Kasolo says that the officials have gone ahead to clear developers interested in acquiring freehold land titles within the city center, contrary to the land Act provisions, which enforce the application of leaseholds.

He further stresses that, his office has instructed members of the Jinja city security committee to expedite inquiries into claims by a section of investors who accuse Jinja district leaders of influencing their land board members to allocate them development space within the wetlands of Bugembe and Masese.

Meanwhile, the Jinja district L.C.V chairperson, Moses Batwala stresses that, they are planning to vacate as per the ministerial directive encouraging them to hand over all their property within the city center to city authorities. However, he says their offices are still under construction.

Batwala further distances himself from claims that Jinja district officials are deliberately frustrating the operability of the city, arguing that these two administrative units are interdependent on each other and he challenged Kasolo to opt for dialogue rather than exerting force to raise his dissatisfaction against fellow leaders.