A high-stakes land dispute has erupted in eastern Uganda, pitting a high-ranking law enforcement official against a fearful community.
Senior Commissioner of Police (SCP) Timothy Halango is under intense scrutiny in Kamuli District over allegations of attempting to aggressively seize a disputed 66-acre piece of land in Mawembe Zone, Kagumba Sub-county, reportedly under the guise of a legitimate legal purchase.
Mr Halango, a prominent figure who previously served as a member of the police disciplinary standby tribunal, currently holds the influential position of Deputy Director of the Directorate of Welfare, Production, and Sports within the Uganda Police Force. He is also well-known publicly as the Chairman of Police Football Club. Local residents, who comprise both sitting tenants and customary landlords, accuse the top officer of using his immense influence to evict them from the contested property.
The standoff reached a boiling point recently when angry residents and local leaders physically blocked a tractor hired by the Police Commissioner from ploughing the disputed fields, narrowly averting a violent confrontation.
The heart of the bitter dispute lies in the authenticity of the land ownership documents. Locals accuse Mr Halango of systematically destroying their crop gardens and orchestrating the forgery of land sale agreements over time to legitimize his occupation.
According to a resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, Mr Halango initially arrived in the area as an ordinary tenant, leasing land to engage in commercial sugarcane cultivation. The resident alleged that the Commissioner later colluded with a local council official to fabricate ownership documents.
‘The land sale agreement was fraudulently made by him together with the LCII chairperson. It is shocking that the document bears an official government stamp dated 2019, yet such official local government stamps were only introduced by the ministry in 2022. This is outright theft by trickery and is completely unacceptable,’ the anonymous resident alleged.
Furthermore, community members point out glaring anomalies in the paperwork, claiming that several individuals listed as witnesses on the disputed land sale agreement had actually passed away well before the death of the land’s original owner, Philip Oboi.
The controversy has already drawn casualties. On April 14, 2026, authorities in Kamuli detained George Batambule, the LCII chairperson of Kibuye Parish in Kagumba Sub-county. Batambule was arrested on the direct orders of the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) following a preliminary investigation into the alleged forgery of the 2019 land agreements.
Appearing before Kamuli Deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Mr Adonia Muguwa to defend his actions, SCP Halango vehemently denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that his acquisition of the land was entirely lawful and transparent.
Mr Halango explained to the district security committee that his relationship with the land began purely as a commercial tenancy agreement with the late Oboi. However, he claimed that before the lease expired, a cash-strapped Oboi offered to sell him portions of the estate across separate transactions.
According to Mr Halango’s timeline, the late Oboi sold him an initial 45 acres. Following Oboi’s death, his sons allegedly approached the commissioner for financial assistance.
“I do not have the mandate to resolve internal family disputes, but the same person who rented me the land is the one who later sold me the initial 45 acres,” Mr Halango defended. He added that when Oboi passed away, his sons requested an additional Shs 5 million to cater for burial expenses, promising him more land in return. In total, Halango claims he paid Shs 1.6 million per acre for 56.6 acres, leaving the family with just over 10 acres.
The late Oboi’s family strongly rejects the Commissioner’s narrative. Robinah Nakitende, an 80-year-old surviving widow who has lived on and cultivated the land since time immemorial, claimed that if any transaction occurred, it was an illegal inside job. She pointed fingers at her co-wife’s son, identified as Kasiba, accusing him of clandestinely conspiring with Halango to sell off the ancestral estate without the family’s consent.
“We received our designated shares from our husband during his lifetime. I am certain they concocted this fraudulent land sale agreement with the other side of the family. We shall pursue this matter to the very end,” Ms Nakitende stated firmly.
Political leaders have voiced deep concerns over the escalating situation, with Ms Justine Mpindi, the District Female Councillor for Kagumba Sub-county, noting that during Mzee Oboi’s public funeral, his children openly stated that their father had only leased the land to the officer for six years starting in 2019.
“Questions heavily remain about how a deceased man could suddenly return to sell him the very same land,” Mpindi noted, calling for urgent state intervention.
The involvement of a high-ranking police chief has reportedly compromised local law enforcement neutrality.
Mr Bernard Kempaka, the LCIII chairperson of Kagumba Sub-county, raised the alarm over what he described as institutional intimidation, revealing that residents are currently living in absolute terror.
“We find ourselves in direct conflict with district police officers who are threatening to arrest local tenants and leaders simply to appease their big boss in Kampala. This is a gross display of impunity. We are determined to resist this illegal intimidation, as mandated by the law,” Kempaka stated.
Mr Kempaka warned that if the harassment of locals by junior police officers does not cease immediately, leadership will bypass the regional command and escalate the petition directly to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
In an attempt to defuse the volatile situation, Mr Muguwa has called for calm, reassuring terrified residents that the district security committee will convene an all-inclusive mediation meeting with all aggrieved parties, surveying surveyors, and legal representatives to ensure justice is served transparently.