UGANDA: Buganda's Gen. Lutaaya reaps big from Museveni's bush war

"Museveni found me working.  I was already a successful businessman.  He came to my home in Bugolobi and told me to abandon my business and join the war.  He told me that after the war I would be able to go back and do my business.  Now I want to do my business but see what I am going through.  I don't know what I have done wrong.  People say that soldiers like to use force, but I have exhausted all the legal means, secured a court order but the police still do not subscribe to or want me to use my land.  What can I do?  All police officers tell me they can't help me because of instructions from above.  That above can only be President Museveni.  What did I do to him?  Why doesn't he tell me what went wrong?  I am not going to go down on my knees to beg what belongs to me"

      Brig. Andrew Lutaaya - interview with The Observer.

In 1977 Brig. Andrew Lutaaya bought a huge chunk of land in Mubende.  When he joined Museveni's Bush War (1981 - 1986), Banyarwanda squatters occupied the same land.  In 1986 he got a lease and in 2003 he secured a Land Tittle for the same land.  In the mean time, more Banyarwanda squatters continued to flock and settle on his land.

During the 1995 Constitution making process, Museveni granted the Banyarwanda a blank cheque as far as Buganda's land is concerned.  They had actively helped him during his sectarian war and he sought to reward them by enacting a provision that legalized their illegal occupation of private land.  First, he Grant's citizenship to all Banyarwanda by identifying them as one of the indigenous tribes of Uganda.  Secondly, the Article 237 of the Constitution directed Parliament to enact a law regulating the relationship between the bonafide occupant of land and the registered owner of the land.  Consequently, S.29 (2) of the enacted Land Act 1998 defined a bonafide occupant of land as a person who occupied any land for 12 years or more years before the coming into force of the 1995 Constitution.

The law protected those who had been illegally sitting on registered land for 12 years without being challenged by registered owners until 1995.  The 12 years was specifically designed to cover the period of his Bush War and after he captured power in 1986.  This was the period when Banyarwanda migrants and refugees who now wielded state power rushed to occupy such land.  The provisions were therefore meant to provide them with a legal backing.  It is during that period that the same people illegally occupied Brig. Lutaaya's land.  Many Ugandans fell victim to such schemes.

After capturing power, Brig. Lutaaya was kind of an absent landlord because he was busy with state duties.  When he retired and sought to utilize his land, the so called bonafide occupants resisted eviction.  He managed to compensate a few of them but the well connected stubbornly refused to leave.  They pleaded bonafide occupancy as per the constitution.  In 2002 he pleaded with Museveni who sent his then State House Legal Officer, Fox Odoi who reported back thus "Lutaaya is the rightful owner and the Tennant's have no plausible claim."   Museveni just kept a deaf ear and in 2003 Lutaaya went to court.  In 2008 court ruled that the illegal occupants of his land "were not bonafide occupants of the land, since they did not occupy the land in 1983 to qualify under the law."

Following the court ruling, Brig. Lutaaya attempted to evict the illegal occupants but was blocked by the police on orders of Gen. Kalekyezi - the Munyarwanda police chief.  The frustrated Brig. Andrew Lutaaya was compelled to run to the court of public opinion hence the above quoted outbursts.  Brig.  Andrew Lutaaya was the only civilian among the 27 men who launched Museveni's Bush War in 1986. He is the one that drove the lorry that carried the fighters that attacked Kabamba.  He is the one that carried a successful reconnaissance on the areas in the Luwero Triangle where Museveni established bases.  He is the one who was in charge of canoeing Museveni across Lake Victoria whenever he would be stealthily leaving and returning to the country. After capturing power Brig. Lutaaya served in different high-profile positions before being grounded (Katebe) in 1994 which lasted several years before being eventually retired.

If such a high-profile person can yell in frustration, it is no wonder ordinary Ugandans have given up and are now living at the mercy of Museveni and his cohorts.  This is a clear case of blood being thicker than water.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM.