The government is finalising the process of cancelling 50 freehold titles which were erroneously issued in 50 plots that were illegally created on Mabira Central Forests Reserves (CFR)’s part that is located on Block 238 in Mukono District.
These titles are part of the 294 freehold titles that were issued on eight different CFRs in Mukono that are currently undergoing cancellation.
The other 244 freehold titles are located on Block 535 (Namyoya, Kifu and Nabugalo CFRs), Block 561 (Kolo CFR), and Block 558 (Bwebereza, Kitambwa and Namagombe CFRs).
Ms Judith Nabakooba, the Minister of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, informed leaders from the Greater Mukono region that the government will soon complete the process in an effort aimed at restoring the forest reserves and protecting the environment.
‘We caveated this land and stopped any activity from being undertaken on it, and as the ministry, we don’t expect to see any activity going on it,’ she said.
Mabira Central Forest Reserve (CFR) is a 29,974 Hectares, situated in the Districts of Buikwe, Kayunga and Mukono.
Relatedly, the Namyoya Central Forest Reserve is a protected 389-hectare area in Mukono District, Uganda, managed by the National Forestry Authority, but faces severe threats from human encroachment, illegal construction, and land disputes. Prior to encroachment, the Forest Reserve, which stretches in the sub-counties of Kyampisi, Nama and Goma Division, initially measured 900 hectares.
Ms Nabakooba, who was shocked to hear that some officials from Mukono District Physical Infrastructure office were approving building plans in these plots on this forest, warned officials to stop what she described as ‘complicating’ the already ‘complicated’ situation.
‘The government is spending heavily to win back its land that has been encroached on by people, and now that we have already issued caveats on the land, you as the district planners, why would you go on and approve development plans in this land?’ he wondered, warning that heads will roll.
Ms Nabakooba, who was officiating at the Greater Mukono Regional stakeholder workshop on the development of the comprehensive government land inventory, informed the leaders that the speed of urbanisation has created pressure, forcing people to encroach on government land and other reserved areas like wetlands, forest reserves, among others.
Ms Fatuma Ndisaba Nabitaka, the Resident District Commissioner of Mukono District, revealed that a section of unscrupulous individuals is in total disregard of the law, going ahead to put up structures in the forest reserves even after being aware that the land is caveated.
‘We are wondering why a physical planner would go ahead to approve plans, yet the system clearly shows that the land has been caveated and we need to act professionally in service delivery,’ she said.
Caveating the land
The list of the 294 plots created in the eight central forest reserves was presented to the lands ministry top management on June 4, last year.
After this meeting, Ms Nabakooba told officials yesterday that they then mooted plans of rescuing it by initiating the process of cancelling the freehold titles that had been issued on them.
The Registrar of Titles, invoking the powers and duties conferred on them under Section 170(a) of the Registration of Titles Act, issued the caveats on the plots, thereby banning any dealings on the affected land.
The Registrar of Titles was moved to act after Ms Doreen Tumushabe, the then Principal Assistant Secretary and Zonal Lands Officer for the Mukono Ministry Zonal Office, forwarded the list of the certificates of the affected plots to the Ministry Permanent Secretary and Commissioner Land Registration in the August 12, 2025 internal memo.
She added that the erroneously issued freeholds were likely to affect unsuspecting members of the public who would be defrauded by people holding such irregularly created titles.
‘Following that, top management resolved that the certificates of title issued in the forest reserves be caveated pending cancellation. This serves to forward to you the list of the certificates of title in the mentioned forests for lodgment of the commissioners’ caveat,’ the letter reads in part.
Ms Nabakooba told the Monitor yesterday that her ministry will continue cancelling various titles on the land to ensure that the land register is cleaned systematically.
‘In Mukono alone, over the last five years on block 503 we cancelled over,1000 titles and that shows the extent of the problem we are tackling and remember in Mukono municipality we have a number of plots meaning that we have to handle and clean our register systematically to remove the over lapse and also double titling,’ she said.
In Masaka
In a related development, officials from the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, in collaboration with the police Criminal Investigations Directorate, yesterday arrested a senior lands officer at the Masaka Ministry of Lands zonal office, over alleged illegal issuing of 265 land titles on government central forest reserves and private land.
Mr Colbert Zziwa Tamale was nabbed following complaints from various residents from the districts of Sembabule, Masaka, Rakai, Lwengo, Lyantonde, Kalungu, Bukomansimbi and Masaka City to SHACU.
SHACU spokesperson, Ms Mariam Natasha, said that: ‘Zziwa is facing multiple allegations related to land issues, including the issuance of over 265 illegal titles in greater Masaka on Central Forest Reserve land, Private land and connivance with Sembabule land officials before court.’
She added: ‘Additionally, he [Zziwa] has been involved in a scheme of extorting money from more than 400 residents of Sembabule District under the false pretense of facilitating the titling process despite the fact that the Lands Ministry has been providing free titles to selected residents, especially those threatened with eviction due to land disputes.’
Notably, Natasha said Zziwa, together with other people she did not mention, created a fraudulent title for land owned by former Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi.
Investigators established that the suspects illegally reduced Mr Ssekandi’s 83-acre estate located in Kyanamukaaka, Masaka District, down to 34 acres before creating a fraudulent title and partitioning the seized land into separate plots for sale.