The High Court has halted the cutting down of a central forest and the National Agricultural Research Organisation research by Victorious Car Bond in Mukono District.
In an interim injunction order issued by Judge Stephen Mubiru last Wednesday, Victorious Car Bond activities on Kifu Central Forest Reserve land FRV 1585 Folio 23, Block 535 Plot 219 at Malaje and Kasayi, Kaggwe, Mukono, have been restrained until the case has been disposed of.
‘It is hereby ordered that the respondent, its servants, agents, employees, assignees, successors in title and such other persons claiming under it, are hereby restrained from dealing in, transacting, alienating, developing, or in any way destroying or interfering with applicant’s property, research trials and natural forest found on land comprised in Kifu Central Forest Reserve (specifically the area claimed by the respondent under Freehold Certificate of Title FRV 1585 Folio 23, Block 535 Plot 219 at Malaje and Kasayi, Kaggwe, Mukono until the final hearing and determination/disposal of the main application,’ the court interim injunction reads.
The court ruling followed NARO suing Victorious Car Bond Ltd for ownership of 114.9 hectares of forested land. In 2017, Victorious Car Bond claimed ownership of 114.9 hectares of the 1,419 hectares of forest reserve located in Nama and Mpoma sub-counties in Mukono District. The car bond is said to have obtained land titles for the forested land from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
The investors claimed that the forest had been deforested since it was near urban areas. But the government had earlier rejected proposals to deforest the central forest reserve for human development.
Part of the Kifu Central Reserve Forest was licensed by the National Forestry Authority to the National Forestry Resources Research Institute (NaFORRI), a public research arm of the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), to study local trees and protect the catchment area of Lake Victoria.
When the ownership wrangle escalated, the NFA and NARO invited the police and the army to protect the forest from encroachment. The security personnel blocked the erasing of the forest and the research centre.
Victorious Car Bond owners petitioned the Minister of Internal Affairs, claiming that the police were being misused to prevent them from developing their land. In a letter dated October 17, 2025, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, wrote to the police directing them not to interfere with the investor’s operations, but they should give him protection.
‘Anyone with an objection to their proprietorship or occupancy of the land ought to pursue the same in courts of law and refrain from misusing the Uganda Police. Police do not decide on land matters; it only protects decisions of the Ministry of Lands and courts of law,’ Maj Gen Otafiire wrote to the Inspector General of Police Abas Byakagaba.
The police withdrew their forces. Last month, the workers of Victorious Car Bond started cutting down part of the central forest reserve, which they say they acquired from the Ministry of Land, Housing, and Urban Development.
But the Ministry of Water and Environment says that an individual can’t own part of the forest, which hasn’t been degazetted. Last month, the Ministry of Water and Environment wrote to the police Inspector General of Police seeking urgent deployment of officers to save a forest reserve and agricultural research centre that Victorious Car Bond had started destroying.
The Monitor understands that the Environment Protection Police Unit has agreed to deploy troops today (Tuesday) in accordance with the court order.