Wakiso land office accused of lifting caveats on former Masaka mayor's estate
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A family has given the Wakiso District Land Office seven days to reinstate caveats it says were withdrawn without authority on plots forming part of the late Eng Tebyasa Matovu's estate.
The Wakiso District Land Office has come under scrutiny after formal allegations that it illegally removed beneficiary caveats placed on contested estate land previously belonging to the late Masaka mayor, Eng Tebyasa Matovu.
Retired Makerere University lecturer Dr Joseph Wasswa Matovu and his mother, Ms Imelda Matovu Gertrude Bassudde, have given the registry a seven-day ultimatum to reinstate the caveats or face legal action, in a petition dated October 29 addressed to the Commissioner for Land Registration at the Ministry of Lands and the Wakiso District Land Office.
Their lawyers argue that a caveat may only be withdrawn by the caveator or by an agent duly authorised by the caveator, and that the clients never lodged, signed or authorised any withdrawal. Land records show Ms Bassudde lodged her caveat on May 29, 2019, while Dr Matovu registered his on December 6, 2023 under instrument WBU 00378270. Recent land search reports, however, showed that withdrawal instruments had been processed and reflected against the properties.
Dr Matovu said the caveats were safeguards meant to preserve the family land while a court case is pending, arguing that removing them while judgment is awaited exposes the land to dealings that would render the outcome of an appeal nugatory. The petitioners are demanding certified copies of all withdrawal applications, the identities of the people who lodged them and the names of the registry officers who approved the transactions.
The dispute is the latest chapter in a succession battle over the estate. In 2013, the late mayor was declared a person of unsound mind under the Mental Treatment Act because of severe dementia, after which Dr Matovu was appointed manager of the estate, and disputes later erupted between him, his stepmother and her children over various properties.
Senior Registrar of Titles at the Wakiso Land Office, Mr Vincent Niyonzima, said he did not remember receiving the complaint and needed to look at the documentation, and declined to explain the circumstances under which the caveats were lifted.