The former minister of Internal Affairs, Maj Gen (rtd) Kahinda Otafiire, who directed the police to protect a car bond investor cutting down acres of a forest in Mukono District, has been appointed the head of the Ministry of Water and Environment that was fighting to save the trees.
The Ministry of Water and Environment alongside the National Forest Authority (NFA) and National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) are battling in court with the Victorious Car Bond, which wants to take over 114.9 hectares of Kifu Central Forest Reserve land in Mukono District.
Sources, who preferred anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the fight to save Kifu Central Forest Reserve land might become difficult due to lack of goodwill from the political side.
One source said they have an uphill task to convince the new political leadership at the helm of saving Kifu Central Forest Reserve that it is very critical to the environment in the central region.
On Monday after appearing before the Parliament Vetting Committee, Gen Otafiire didn’t entertain any questions about his new deployment in the Ministry of Water and Environment, saying he was still in the transit lounge and once he reaches there, he would be able to tell what awaits him.
Efforts to get a comment from him were futile by press time yesterday. In 2017, Victorious Car Bond claimed ownership of 114.9 hectares of the 1,419- hectare 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 degazzeted since it was near urban areas. But the government had earlier rejected proposals to degazetted the central forest reserve for human development.
Part of 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 asked the police and the army to protect the forest from encroachment.
The security personnel blocked the destruction of the forest and research centre. Victorious Car Bond owners petitioned the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen Otafiire, claiming that the police were illegally deployed to prevent them from developing their land.
In a letter dated October 17, 2025, Gen Otafiire wrote to the police directing them not to interfere with the investor’s operations.
‘Anyone with objection to their proprietorship or occupancy of the land, ought to pursue the same in courts of law and refrain from misusing Uganda Police.
Police does not decide on land matters, it only protects decisions of the Ministry of Lands and courts of law,’ Gen Otafiire wrote to the Inspector General of Police Abas Byakagaba.
The police withdrew their forces.
In November last year, 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 has not been degazetted.
The Ministry of Water and Environment wrote to the Inspector General of Police seeking urgent deployment of officers to save the forest reserve and agricultural research centre that Victorious Car Bond had started destroying.
Naro also rushed to the High Court where it secured an interim order halting the cutting down on the trees.
Injunction
In December 2025 interim injunction order issued by Judge Stephen Mubiru, Victorious Car Bond activities on Kifu Central Forest Reserve land FRV 1585 Folio 23, Block 535 Plot 219 at Malaje and Kasayi, Kaggwe, Mukono, were halted 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.