By CHIMPREPORTS
The Ministry of Agriculture has written to the Head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Brig Gen. Henry Isoke, to investigate retired UPDF Captain David Bashaija for illegally grabbing the government’s Sanga Stock Farm in Kiruhura district and splitting it into plots for sale.
“This is therefore to formally report this matter to your esteemed office and to request for your immediate action by investigating and prosecuting this matter in accordance with the provisions of the law,” the letter from the Ministry of Agriculture dated February 13, 2024, to Isoke reads in part.
The development comes at a time when the Ministry is struggling to block Internal Affairs Minister Retired Major General Kahinda Otafiire from grabbing a huge part of the government’s Njeru Stock Farm.
The Sanga Stock Farm is one of the government ranches being managed by the National Animal Genetic Resources Center and Data Bank (NAGRC & DB) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF).
The ranch was established to, among other things, work as a livestock breeding and multiplication center for both highly productive and farmer-preferred dairy and beef cattle, which are accessed by farmers at subsidized prices.
The farm also hosts a conservancy for indigenous Mubende and Kigezi goat breeds.
Part of the farm hosts telecommunication masts for Kiruhura district, while another part is set to host an agricultural technology university through a presidential initiative.
How it started
According to the Agriculture Ministry’s letter to Isoke, drama started unfolding in the 90s, when Captain Bashaija “forcefully occupied about one square mile of the government farm and resisted several eviction attempts by the authorities at the time.”
This culminated in a Presidential Communication REF. PO/17 dated November 20, 2000, directing the Attorney General to investigate the grabbing of part of Mbarara Stock Farm under NARO and part of Sanga Stock Farm under NAGRC and DB and thereafter cause immediate prosecution of Captain David Bashaija.
“It has been reported to me that the above-mentioned resident (Captain Bashaija) of Mbarara district has taken over government land… at Sanga Research Station. This is to direct you to look at this and, if true, cause his immediate prosecution and action,” Museveni’s letter seen by ChimpReports reads in part.
A follow-on communication, REF. MOS/Al/45, dated August 24, 2006, was made by the then Minister of State for Animal Industry, Bright Rwamirama, to the Minister of State for Lands, requesting the latter not to issue any land titles on government farms and ranches, including the subject land, without express clearance from MAAIF.
Despite all this, the Agriculture Ministry told Isoke that Captain David Bashaija “kept returning to the subject land and, on February 11, 2024, commenced grading and parceling out the subject land into plots for sale and has since erected a roadside land sale advertisement.”
In 2017, the Deputy Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), Lt. Gen. Charles Angina, ordered the immediate arrest of Bashaija for grabbing the government ranch.
During the meeting at Lake View Hotel in Mbarara, Angina angrily directed Col. Sikaji Tumusiime, who was the Ankole region OWC commander, to “evict, disarm, and arrest” Capt. Bashaija from stock farm land.
“Unfortunately, one of our own, Capt. Bashaija, is among the people who have been found stealing government land; we should immediately evict him because, with the military, any statement from the president is a direct order, and we must comply by Monday. For us, we don’t waste time,’’ said Angina.
However, this order never materialized. At the time, Capt. Bashaija was said to have fraudulently occupied 79 out of 1,300 acres of the ranch.
Bashaija speaks out.
In defense, Capt. Bashaija, who is the director of Ngabo Academy Secondary School, told ChimpReports in 2019 that he bought the piece of land from the Uganda Lands Commission for Shs 22 million.
“What I know is that Ngabo owns that land legally. It’s Ngabo and the Uganda Lands Commission that own titles, and there is nothing like NARO,” said Bashaija.
“If it’s true that the Land Commission made a mistake in giving us a land title, then they should compensate us,’’ he added.
Bashaija, a retired army officer, is a powerful NRA historian with deep ties to the top military establishment.
In 2019, lawmakers decried the continued encroachment of government ranches by individuals.
The MPs discovered that two square miles of Nshaara ranch had been taken, with Ruhengyere and Sanga ranches losing 12 and one square mile, respectively.
Land-grabbing impact
The increased grabbing of government ranches could undermine government efforts to improve the quality of livestock breeds across the country and increase beef exports.
In the financial year 2020/21, the government, through NAGRC & DB, distributed 1,215 artificial insemination kits in Bukedi, Lango, Busoga, Acholi, Karamoja, Teso, Buganda, Kigezi, and Toro subregions.
As a result of these efforts, the production of beef increased from 228,243 metric tons in FY 2020/21 to 230,746 MT in FY 2021/22.
In the calendar year 2022, the amount of beef exported was 247,234 kg valued at Shs 2.944 billion, as compared to Shs 1.018 billion fetched in the year 2021.
The livestock sector accounts for about 17 percent of Uganda’s agricultural value added and 4.3 percent of Uganda’s GDP.
Parliament recently tasked the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja, to follow up on the case in which Otafiire is accused of grabbing a government stock farm in Njeru Municipality, Buikwe District.
In 2019, Otafiire presented documents to Parliament in which he said the land in question did not belong to the government but was private property he obtained under a willing buyer-willing seller mode of payment. He said that the government was wrongly superimposed on his land.
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