Shameless: Title Godfrey Kirumira Claims to have Bought from the Dead is found a Forgery, Police Declares him Wanted!

The Good Book puts the days of a bandit at forty. Businessman Godfrey Kirumira, if at all he is a bandit, as some people would prefer to believe, has somewhat managed to survive beyond that deadline. This after supposedly engaging in several cases of reported land grabbing for several years now.

But, barring twisting of the law by the judiciary and the police, Kirumira looks to be headed for awful times. This, after he purportedly grabbed a prime piece of land said to belong to an Asian. From the evidence we have gathered, the Asian looks to be very determined and ready to teach Kirumira a harsh lesson of his life.

“The `bandit` had turned land grabbing into one of his leisure games. We now want to make land grabbing a very painful experience for him,” a source in the complainant’s circles jokingly proclaimed. In these pages, we reported on March 23^rd 2022, about how Prof Amirali Karmali and Kirumira are locked up in a contest over a total of 85 acres of land located within the Namanve Industrial area.

Via the story titled; “The Lost Ubuntu: Shock as Godfrey Kirumira Claims to buy Land from a Dead Man a Year after his Demise,”we reported how each of the two claims to own the same piece of land, whose monetary value is being quoted at UGX15Bn. Apart from dragging Kirumira to the civil courts, the Asian has again, now opened up a criminal file of forgery against the Kwagalana Group chairman.

The police have also escalated the matters by declaring Kirumira a wanted man who is legally required to report to the CIID office in Mukono, for quizzing over forging a Title. By opening up both criminal and civil charges against Kirumira, Karmali is targeting to receive back his land as well as have the businessman imprisoned through the criminal courts.

“We don’t want to give the `bandit` any escape route,” the Asian`s source declares. Well, it can’t be told for sure, if by the courts doing as Karmali wishes, they won’t open themselves for scrutiny courtesy of subjecting Kirumira to double jeopardy.

The Evidence

In the previous story, we erroneously reported about how Kirumira was claiming to have bought the land from a man who had died a year, before the transaction itself could take place. The correct position, we have ascertained, is that the vendor had actually spent over twenty one years in the grave by the time Kirumira again claims to have purchased the land from him. How this could have happened, if at all the vendor had died eleven years before, only a man of Kirumira’s super intellect can possibly tell.

Fortunately, now that Kirumira has been summoned by the police, he would be in position to help the investigators to throw more light on how, what appears impossible proved to be possible in his case. Kirumira’s rather unbelievable story is made even more unbelievable by the fact that the man he claims to have bought the land from happens to have been a mere shamba boy of the one who genuinely owned it.

Karmali says he bought the land from one Charles Kagenya, whilst Kirumira says he purchased the land from one Yokana Galikwoleka Mukasa. The transaction of Karmali took place in November 2010 and that of Kirumira happened in the year 2017. Karmali land is recorded as Block 113 Plot 393 and that of Kirumira as Block 113 Plot 392 and 393. Going by the titles in question, Kirumira owns the two plots leaving Karmali with nothing.

But while appearing before Justice Catherine Bamugemereire in 2017, the presidential aide in charge of land matters, Capt. Gertrude Njuba revealed to the land probe commission how land grabbers can falsely create Titles atop existing original ones!

To make herself clearer, Njuba referenced the case of a woman residing along Entebbe Road. She didn’t disclose her name in interest of her safety. Njuba said the woman visited their office after her land was switched in the same manner. It all started with the woman parting with the mother Title.

She had surrendered the Title to people who wanted to survey and subdivide their land from hers. Njuba stated how those people ended up cunningly switching the whole piece of land. They did this, Njuba told Bamugemereire, by placing the plots of land which were on the right side, on the opposite side and vice versa.

Karmali accuses Kirumira of backdating his version of the Title to defeat his which was issued in November 2010. The staff of the land office are notorious for creating two land titles over the same piece of land. It wouldn’t therefore surprise anyone abreast of such rot which takes place at the land office if, they were to be told the same was also done in respect of the matter at hand.

But even in situations where the land office happens not to be party to such kinds of foul play, land grabbers themselves are also renowned for printing fake Titles on Nasser Road, along the way to deceitfully land a particular piece of land. This is not to suggest, though, that any of the two land titles in this case is a forgery, but to remain alive to the fact that the same happens often. While we are still at it, the police have since arrested a certain man from Lugazi who supposedly confessed to have been ‘bribed’ by Kirumira to act as the one who sold this land to him.

This man is referred to as Stephen Muwonge. He is a resident of Bunyagira in Lugazi along Kampala-Jinja Expressway. Muwonge says Kirumira paid him a paltry UGX20,000 to pose as the vendor in this matter. His evidence is preserved on an audio tape supposedly recorded on April 12^th 2022. Yet no one knows exactly who recorded Muwonge’s evidence and most importantly, under what conditions.

Before taking leave of this saga, it is worthy pointing out as per Karmali’s evidence, how by the time Kirumira says he purchased the land, the Mother Title had been handed over for surveying and valuation. Karmali says that was being done before he could himself buy the land. He wonders how the same Title could at the same time have been in the hands of Kirumira or the Land office. We don’t have the answers, but we trust that the law enforcers will allow justice in these matters to prevail, not either Kirumira or Karmali.

Author Profile

Stephen Kasozi Muwambi: Mr. Stephen Kasozi Muwambi is a seasoned crime investigative writer, majoring in judicial-based stories. His two decades’ experience as a senior investigative journalist has made him one of the best to reckon on in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected]