In Kikuube, 300 households are facing forcible removal.

Over 300 households in Rwengabi village, Kabwoya sub county, Kikuube district, are facing eviction from their ancestral land.

Residents are fighting over 640 acres of land in the vicinity with William Mugabe, a wealthy businessman.

Residents, led by Patrick Okwairwoth, the area LCI chairperson, claim Mugabe has a title encompassing 235 hectares that he acquired near their ancestral land in the same hamlet, but that he wants to use it to forcefully take their 470-acre land adjacent his.

They accused the police and officers of the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces of conspiring with Mugabe to displace them from their land.

Joseph Oyer, 50, who has lived on the disputed site for more than 40 years, says he was taken aback when Mugabe and soldiers attacked the area, claiming their entire plot of land.

A resident, Isaac Isingoma, wonders how Mugabe, who initially approached them as a kind neighbor, has now turned on them by seizing their entire land.

The Kikuube LCV vice chairperson, Vincent Alpher Opio, claims he has already petitioned the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC to intercede and examine how Mugabe obtained the land in the area.

According to a copy of the land title obtained by URN, Mugabe purchased 235 hectares of land on plot 70, block 2 in Rwengabi/Kataba village between 2007 and 2012. In 2012, he obtained the ownership to the same property.

We were unable to contact Mugabe for comment since he did not reply to our numerous phone calls.

Leaders in the Bunyoro sub-region raised a red flag in April this year, citing the growing presence of bogus land titles in the Bunyoro sub-region.

Many land titles in the region, according to the leaders, were obtained fraudulently, placing inhabitants on the verge of being displaced from their ancestral land.

The leaders pleaded with the Lands Ministry to intervene and annul any unlawfully obtained titles.

Since 2014, the Bunyoro sub-region has seen several harsh and forcible evictions. More than 500 households in Kyabisagazi I and Kyabisagazi II villages in Kigorobya sub-county, Hoima district, were evicted from their ancestral land in February 2019.

During the eviction, four individuals were slain by armed men dressed in uniforms identical to the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces and Anti-riot police. A conflict over 485 acres of contested land erupted between Edgar Agaba, a merchant in Hoima town, and more than 500 people.

The evicted folks have remained displaced to this day.