MASAKA LAND BOARD DISBANDED

By ISA ALIGA & SHAMIM J NAKAWOOYA
Masaka. The Masaka District Council has disbanded the district land board despite stiff resistance from majority of the councillors.

During a special council meeting on Tuesday, district speaker Phoebe Kyewalyanga outsmarted councillors and put the matter to vote twice. 
In the initial voting using show of hands, 12 councillors out of 16 who attended the meeting, voted against any discussion about the disbandment of the land board. 
However, the speaker asked for a second round of voting telling councillors to answer with either yes or no after which she told council that those in favour of the motion had carried the day. 
Only five councillors missed the session. “It has been recorded in our minutes that the district land board has been dissolved and I cannot change anything,” the speaker said.
“I will not retract my decision because what I am doing is legal,” Ms Kyewalyanga added, amid murmurs of disapproval, from some councillors. 
She said she considered the item on disbanding the land board on the day’s agenda following a petition by Mr Kibra Manooti, the Kimanya/Kyabakuza Division councillor.
But Mr Walter Eliama, the chief administrative officer, said it was unfair to disband the land board without giving its members a fair hearing. “I don’t know why they have not been given a chance to defend themselves,” he said.
In response, the speaker said when she summoned members of the land board to appear before the council, they sent her threatening letters, asking to know under which law they were being summoned.
CREDIT: DAILY MONITOR