Authorities in Nakasongola District are investigating the brutal killing of a resident by suspected machete-wielding men just hours after a manager on a disputed 5 square mile land confronted the victim’s family with death threats.
Dan Ssebyala, the deceased, was reportedly waylaid by machete-wielding men in Ndaiga Village as he returned home from Ndaiga Trading Centre at 9:30pm on Monday night.
Mr Erimiya Ssenoga, the village defence secretary, said Ssebyala’s body was recovered at 1am although the residents claim that he had left the trading centre at about 9pm.
“We recovered the lifeless body of our own, a few metres from his home. The assailants likely waylaid him as he got back home. Ssebyala is among the many residents whose land was recently fenced off by a landlord, but he has been resisting the eviction,” he said in an interview yesterday.
Family sources told Daily Monitor that Ssebyala had earlier on Monday been confronted by a farm manager who tried to stop him from slashing his garden in preparation for the next planting season.
“The manager reportedly issued death threats before disappearing,” a son of the deceased, who reportedly witnessed the verbal threats, told the investigation teams.
Last Thursday, Daily Monitor online carried a story where Ssebyala was exhibiting the spent bullet shells recovered at his home when private security guards reportedly trying to enforce an eviction, fired several gunshots in the air on October 11, 2023.
The guards were reportedly acting on behalf of their boss, Mr Jotham Mafende, who owns the disputed five square mile piece of land stretching through six villages in Lwabyata Sub-county.
Mr Sam Twineamazima, the Savannah Region Police spokesperson, said the police team, including the scene of crime officers, are on the ground to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Nakasongola District chairperson Sam Kigula has since visited the area to defuse tension as residents threatened to avenge the death of one of their own whose death is linked to the land dispute involving a landlord and more than 3,000 residents.
“The land dispute in Lwabyata has turned bloody. The Office of the President should quickly interest itself in the matter. The powers behind the land evictions can only be checked by the President. All our efforts are being watered down by the landlord who claims to be above all officials in Nakasongola District,” he said.
Last Friday, the Nakasongola District Security Committee disarmed the four private security guards that had earlier reportedly terrorised the residents occupying the disputed land. The DSC also led the residents to remove the barbed wire fence on the public facilities including Kikooge Roman Catholic Church Primary School and Kikooge Health Centre.
Mr Mafende reportedly acquired a lease on public land measuring about five square miles in Lwabyata and Nabiswera sub-counties. About 350 families accuse him of denying them the right to own their respective bibanja (untitled land) with forceful evictions.
But in an interview on Saturday Mr Mafende said whatever he is doing is within the law.
“I own that land and many of the people complaining have been compensated. I have even processed a title to give to Kikooge Primary School where parts of the structures are already built on my land,” he said.
TrendCentral Uganda contributes more than 80 percent of the land ownership challenges in the country as a result of the complicated land tenure system, according the Ministry of Lands. Districts such as Nakaseke, Luweero, Nakasongola, Mityana, Mukono, Kayunga, Kiboga, Mubende, Kassanda, and Kyankwanzi are among the areas with the highest number of land conflicts.
