By;Olivia Nabaggala
The minister of lands, housing and urban development Betty amongi wants parliament to come up with a time frame for the land case to be heard.
In a press conference at Media Center Amongi says courts are filled with compensation complaints deferring with what government is offering them before taking their land for national projects yet all processes including proper values for the land taken by the government valuer between 6 to 12 months period causing a loss of USD 97 million approximately 349 billion shillings in the last two financial years.
This comes after government tabled the 1998 amendment land act 26 to enable it acquire land forcefully for development.
According to Amongi, the money spent on fines could have been used to finance other infrastructure projects, listing 21 government projects under National Water and Sewage Corporation, Uganda National Roads Authority, Standard Gauge Railway, Electrification and Oil, which have stalled due to compensation disputes which the proposed constitutional amendment bill 2017 seeks to address.
The bill seeks to insert a clause that will enable government to compulsorily acquire land for public projects and deposit money in the bank equivalent to government land valuation in case the owner rejects.
Amongi says government can’t wait for the omnibus constitutional amendment bill to address the critical need of land acquisition for infrastructure projects but hastened to add that Ugandans will not be rendered landless as its rumoured.
Meanwhile the Opposition Democratic Party (DP) insists the land amendment act was presented in bad faith suggesting that the land commission of inquiry led by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire would first be given a chance to wind up its investigations because it had already stepped on the big fish involved in land problems according to the party acting secretary General Gerald Sseranda
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