Bamugemereire Says Land Probe Hasn’t Been Funded for 4 Months

The ongoing Commission of Inquiry into land matters says it has not been funded by government for the last four months.

The concern was raised on Monday by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, the chairperson of the land probe as the commission resumed its public hearings in Kampala.

President Yoweri Museveni appointed the Commission in December of 2016 to investigate into the effectiveness of land law, processes of land acquisition, management and land registration.

In November last year, the President extended the Commission’s term for another six months.

But now, Justice Bamugemereire says that the work of the Commission has been affected by resource constraints.

“People are calling us everywhere but for the last four months, we have not had any provisions at all for the operations of this Commission,” Justice Bamugemereire said on Monday.

“We have had no provisions at all. We were not on the budget, and we hope to be on the budget this week or next week,” she added.

Justice Bamugemereire said that the Commission is overwhelmed by calls from different parts of the country requesting it to visit and receive land related complaints, but that with no operational budget, this is difficult.

“We aren’t part of the budgeting process, we are an after thought. It’s a difficult thing for us. That yes, we would like to be everywhere but we’ve been resource constrained for the last four months”.

She said that the personnel employed by the Commission have also not been paid which she described as “painful” to watch.

Last year in July, the Commission was forced to suspend its public hearings due to inadequate funds.

For the commission to run, it spends on paying for witnesses’ food, transport, look after them and other activities that happen behind the scenes. This is on top of other administrative costs as well as transporting the 7-member Commission to conduct field visists.

Investigators are also facilitated to send out summons as well as doing their independent investigations.