Fraudsters secretly applying for expired leases without owners knowledge - Lands official

Is your lease expired? Well, there could already be an application for a takeover in the Ministry of Lands.

Prof. Jack Nyeko, one of the Commissioners at the Uganda Lands Commission, told Members of Parliament investigating irregularities in land compensation that it's not until recently people were applying for land with expired lease and their applications approved without the owners' knowledge.

'Before 2018, people would come and say we have identified free land and apply for an allocation. But when you go to the ground, you find the land is there but there are owners and buildings,' he said.

Nyeko said the fraudsters were taking advantage of the Commission's lack of finances to go on the ground and verify the authenticity of the land.

Commission chairman Beatrice Byenkya, blamed the mess in the Commission on the previous members but said, they are now streamlining things.