ST PAUL, writing from his prison cell in his epistle to the Philippians 2:15ff in which he exhorted his audience to “…blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation…” is a loud reminder to the newly sworn in members of the Jinja City Land Board.
Jinja City is considered as the epicenter of land related crisis, where residents wake up in the morning to finds gazetted roads turned into plots for sale or one piece of land is allocated to multiple people.
Jinja Mayor Peter Alton Kasolo Okocha who borrows from the cited scripture has asked the Jinja Land Board members led by celebrated Kampala city lawyer Jamil Sanyu Mukama to be exemplary and stand out as the best land board in the country.
He was speaking during the official opening ceremony of an induction training of land board members and area land committee held at the Jinja based Civil Service College on Wednesday 20th March, 2024.
Putting his message in perspective, Mayor Kasolo whose address lasted only three minutes told the commissioners the tough journey they followed to get what he describes as ‘the crème de la crème’ who should restore smiles to the faces of the city dwellers.
“…it was not an easy task, we had to consult widely as we scan through the integrity barometer of potential candidates with no blemish and here we are today…”, Kasolo said.
The training was facilitated by Richard Asiimwe,a Land officer from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development which is responsible for land boards countrywide.
Jinja Speaker Bernard Mbayo who also attended the training told the audience that whatever activities the land board members conduct have direct bearing on the politics of the area where he falls.
“…this means you must as a matter of fact do your work with diligence and prudence to ensure that we put an end to all types of confusion created by the many years without a board…”,he said.
Jinja town Clerk Edward Lwanga was equally optimistic that the new team with two serious practicing lawyers should be adequate to legally buttress the board from making any slight blunder like has been the case.
Lwanga noted with concern that Jinja District Land Board whose term and mandate expired has continued to blatantly transact business even in the centre of the city beyond their jurisdiction.
To prove his concern, Lwanga cited an incident when the Jinja District Land Board had the audacity to place an advertisement in one of the newspapers over a piece of property along the main Street.
Lwanga urged the board members to be extra careful and master all the different land related laws together with the manual issued by the ministry to execute their roles without any legal hiccup.
On his part, the youthful board chairman Jamil Sanyu Musana pledged to work as a closely-knit team in the spirit of collective responsibility within the legal and policy framework.
The objective of the training was to learn about the historical background of the land systems in Uganda from pre-colonial to the current times.
The lone facilitator Richard Asiimwe said it was also to learn about the legal and policy framework on land matters in the country and to learn about the roles and responsibilities of the different institutions, among others.
Other members of the Land Board Commission include senior lawyer Alex Luganda who doubles as the Attorney General to the Busoga Kingdom, NRM diehard Emmanuel Joram Kamugisha (Gish), Barbra Munyaruguru a teacher at JIPRA, businesswoman Harriet Mirembe Mukisa, businessman Philip Bogere, FDC’s Mohammed Katuntubiro and Abubaker Kirunda Menya as the Secretary.
Northern Division Area Land Committee members led by Wilfred Miyingo, Rose Mukama, Hajji Musa Kamegi and Joseph Kabanda also attended.
However, the Southern Division headed by Mayor Nasser Ashraf did not send their members and no explanation was announced, meaning the rich division with numerous revenue points could be planning to facilitate its own induction training.
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