Nonve Forest Reserve Photo credit: Protected Planet

The Select Committee investigating the encroachment on Nonve Forest Reserve has tasked the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Emmanuel Olaunah, to ascertain the authenticity of the land titles issued. The Committee made this directive while meeting officials from the Ministry at Parliament as investigations into the illegal allocation of land in the reserve continues.

The Chairperson of the Select Committee, Felix Okot Ogong, stated that the Committee was interested in finding out whether there was a report on the illegally acquired land titles in the Nonve Forest Reserve. “According to our investigations, we were able to establish that all the land titles in the forest reserve were issued illegally. We want to know if there is any action being taken by the Land Registry to cancel them,” Hon. Okot-Ogong stated.

The Chairperson added that they had a letter from Wakiso Land Board stating that it had requested the Land Registry to cancel the illegal land titles.

However, the Assistant Commissioner in charge the land registry, Robert Nyombi, said the Commission had not received any communication regarding the matter. “There is no way we could receive a letter that is not addressed to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry,” Mr. Nyombi explained, adding that the letter had been wrongly addressed to the Commissioner. Nyombi however, promised that the Land Registry would take on the matter and requested for a copy of the letter for follow up.

Kabula County MP and member of the Committee, Hon. James Kakooza, advised the Ministry to devise a mechanism of safeguarding land against encroachment. Olaunah revealed that the Ministry was in the process of developing an inventory of all public land.

The Committee tasked the Ministry to produce a report on various controls put in place to address the issue of illegal encroachment on public land, especially forest reserves.