The President said that the opposition politicians are spreading falsehoods about the proposed land law because they do not want to see government working, as they will have something to criticize about when the government is performing well.  He said the it is not true that government wants to grab people’s land as the opposition
politicians are telling people but rather ease government acquisition of land for development of public infrastructure such as roads, electricity and the railway.

President Museveni explains the land issue at Spice FM

He assured the listeners that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government’s take on land is known as it was the first government to allow people to own land and will not therefore turn around and say land belongs to the government. He explained that with the proposed amendment to the land law, government must acquire land after compensating the owner and where a landowner is discontented, he or she can appeal in order to get fair compensation but at the same time ensuring that public infrastructure projects are not stalled.

Citing the Kamwenge-Fort Portal road that he had earlier on commissioned President Museveni said that there are some greedy people who want to loot government stall government projects with the hope of being compensated more money.  “The Kamwenge road works got stalled when a one Kasangwa wanted a billion shillings for a quarter an acre and yet the piece of land had been valued at UGX 89 million. The contractor had to change where the road would pass.

The President said the amendment would allow discontented landowners to let government projects continue on as they appeal for fair compensation. He revealed that during the construction of the Mpigi-Kanoni-Kabulasoke-Maddu-Ssemabule–Masaka road, government acquired 21 acres of his land in Gomba; he did not refuse government
to acquire the land because he knew the road would be of use to him.

President Museveni said if the Uganda is to develop, it must allow infrastructure development such as factories.
“Stop fighting factories and again saying that the youth do not have jobs. You are the same people sending the youth to work in factories abroad and yet you are refusing these factories back home,” he said.
The President said that although he has always fought for the construction of more factories so that the youth get jobs time and again he has been accused of having shares in those factories. He asked the public to welcome factories citing that small countries such as South Korea and Japan have been able to develop because of factories. “In the USA, only 2% of the population are into farming and the rest into manufacturing and factories,” he said.

He also asked people to desist fighting factories according to tribes or race saying that all Ugandans have freedom of movement and can set up factories anywhere they want as long as they acquire the land to do so.  “There are people who say that is an Indian factory but all factories in Uganda are Ugandan,” he said.

President Museveni also warned people against encroaching forest reserves and swamps saying that these had greatly contributed to the long dry spells and drought in some areas of the country. He said the country has so many water bodies and government was going to secure pumps to promote irrigation. He also asked the media to teach the
public about the dangers of swamp encroachment such as desertification.

“The media should teach the people that we need that water for irrigation. We do not want our country to become a desert,” he said. On the issue of the forthcoming Local Council elections, the President called upon Ugandans to participate in the elections and to vote for the NRM party. He asked the voters to desist from voting along tribal
lines but rather according to ability.
“There are so may refugees in Bunyoro and it is good that the Banyoro welcomed them but do not vote along tribal lines like in Kenya because you will lose out a lot,” he warned.

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Museveni inspecting a farmer in Kabale over the weekend.

President Yoweri Museveni has encouraged farmers in the country, who are engaged in crop production, to instill in their minds the culture and practice of growing crops all year around using any improvised means of irrigation scheme to combat drought spells.

“The science of pumping water from a water source to a reservoir at a higher altitude, then pump it to the farm and irrigate the crops with help of solar powered water pump is the way forward for Uganda,” he said.

He observed that once the system is installed, it only requires more solar panels to increase the capacity for extension use to more users.

“The dry season is no longer a problem. Free water is available and people cry over drought season. The dry season is for those who are not enlightened and the uninformed. Even developed countries, which receive minimal level of rain level, have their agricultural practice on irrigation,” he added.

The President was today commissioning a solar water pumping irrigation system at Kyerero village, Nyamihanda Parish near Muhanga Township in Bukinda, Rubanda county, in Kabale district. The system was installed on the farm of Mr. Charles Kwehangaana Rutaro following the President’s pledge in 2010. Farmer Kwehangaana Rutaro grows apples, a variety of passion fruits and other crops on a two-acre piece of land. The enterprise earns him Shs.43 million per year.

The purpose of the installation was to demonstrate applications of solar water pumping as an economical and sustainable option for irrigated agricultural production.

While inspecting the project, President Museveni said that the purpose of his visit to the farm was to assess the effectiveness of solar water pumping irrigation scheme. He, therefore, tasked the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, former NAADS and the Ministry of Water and Environment, to install in the districts of Kabale, Kiryandongo, Masindi, Kaberamaido, Soroti, Katakwi, Kumi, Mukono and Luuka solar water pumping irrigation schemes. He reiterated government’s commitment to distributing more solar water pumps to the people.

“What I wanted to prove was the science behind the cost of locally established irrigation scheme”, he said.

Museveni inspects a farm which uses irrigation in Kabale district.

Addressing rally following the tour, the President told the people of Rukiga County that a good leader is one who guides people to shift away from mass eradication of poverty through modern methods of farming with accountability in mind. He, however, strongly warned them against agricultural practices in wetlands.

He commended the people of Rukiga County for voting the Movement overwhelmingly during the 2016 Presidential, Parliamentary and council level elections saying that this symbolized massive politically uprooting of the opposition from the area.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Hon. Vincent Ssempija, State Minister for Planning, Hon. David Bahati and State Minister for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations and area MP, Hon. Herbert Kabafunzaki, accompanied the President.

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The Organizations say, the three judges who are currently working in this court can not possibly handle the many corruption cases filed in this court which causes huge backlog.

One of the activists, Felix Kafuma notes that the court should also be facilitated with enough transport means to endeavor this court clear off the cases filed in up country.

Meanwhile, Felix still asks the Minister for presidency Kabakumba Masiko to resign her position as she is being investigated about the media reports that she used Government transmitter for her own private business in Masindi to satisfy her desires.

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Appearing before the public accounts committee (Pac) chaired by Maxwell Akora (Maruzi), Karuhanga who even shed tears before the committee as she tried to defend herself on the controversial payment named west budama MP Fox Odoi, judge Ralph Ocan (Masindi resident judge) and Charles Twagira.

The committee had to adjourn several times as Karuhanga wept in a testimony she gave to the committee where she denied having signed a consent judgment in which the court award to the company was done.

Molly together with bosses of NFA led by acting executive director Onyango had appeared before Pac to explain circumstances under which a local company Beachside Development Ltd ‘conned’ NFA of US$1.9m (close to shs5bn) in compensation of a botched forest deal in Entebbe.

The committee heard that this company owned by MP Fox Odoi, Judge Ralph Ocan and Charles Twagira took NFA to court accusing it of breach of contract and demanded for US$8.6m for damages from NFA after it cancelled the deal.

This company it emerged through Twagira in September 2005 approached NFA seeking for a 50-year lease offer to manage and also set up an eco-tourism center (beach) on the 209 hectare forest located at Kwewaga-Entebbe.

However, after several correspondences and dealings relating to this transaction between NFA and the company, NFA terminated the project and it was dragged to court.

The committee however, discovered that much as Twagira Charles in his own capacity is the one who approached NFA in September 2005 seeking for this deal, when time for compensation came, the Beachside showed up.

The committee is continuing to investigate the matter.

Ultimate Media

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