Addressing journalists at the media center, the minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development Betty Kamya said all land offices in the country are closed and as such, land transactions will only resume after the lockdown is lifted.
Kamya has also directed that no evictions and collection of annual nominal ground rent shall take place during this period.
“Any forceful engagements and for impending evictions should be reported to the Police and other law enforcement agencies as soon as possible to avert,” said the Minister, adding, “Where a Landlord chooses to sell land to a different person other than the tenants during this COVID-19 lockdown period, the rights of the 3 existing tenants shall not be affected in any way and the old Landlord shall take the responsibility of introducing the new Landlord to the tenants for purposes of paying him/her busuulu, after the COVID-19 lockdown period is lifted.”
The intervention comes at the backdrop of complaints, mostly by tenants, filed from different parts of the country with the most recent incident occurring at Bukompe village in Kassanda district where city businessman Abid Alam’s men forcefully destroyed homes and plantations in a bid to evict settlers. The matter has since been taken over by the Statehouse Anti-Corruption Unit.
