According to the Managing Director Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) the land belonging to Uganda Railways is not secure, and they are in the process of recovering all the land occupied illegally whether people have titles or not.
The Uganda Railways Corporation has said that a joint
security taskforce comprising of Uganda Railways, the Military and Police has
been set up to recover encroached railway land and ensure the exit of encroachers.
According to the Managing Director Uganda Railways Corporation
(URC) Stanley Sendegeya, the land belonging to Uganda Railways is not secure, and they are in the
process of recovering all the land occupied illegally whether people have
titles or not.
Other members of the joint task force are the Districts
Internal Security Officers, and Resident District Commissioners (RDCs), and
Resident City Commissioners (RCCs) among others.
Most of the railways lands including the Port bell station, Nsambya, Uganda Railways land in Nalukolongo, railway land in Luzira, Mukono, Jinja and
several others have been occupied illegal with many of the occupants having
illegal titles.
In an interview with Stanley Sendegeya, he says that everyone who has encroached on the Uganda Railways land has been
notified and they are not expected to be on the railway line and land on March
31st 2022.
He says that during this time, they plan to start engaging
encroachers by telling them to vacate the land. He says the joint force which
has been formed is going to manage the exit, and those who don’t exit will be
forcefully evicted.
Sendegeya says that it does not matter what name appears on
the title, but as long as the title was got without the consent of Uganda Railways,
this will be reclaimed.
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He says that a few people will be compensated, while the
rest will be evicted if they do not exit. Sendegeya says that they want to
handle the issues of the land once and for all, and this should not be delayed
at any cost.
He says some entities like hotels, factories which are only
the railway land will be demolished since they are illegally in the railway
land, and the team is supposed to help in this process.
Alex Otto
Freelancer