Over 200 people who were evicted from Nakawa-Naguru estates have encroached on the Uganda railway land reserve in Nakawa. The encroachers have erected makeshift houses on reserve land covering about 30 meters on either side of the railway line.
Joseph Ojok, one of the squatters claims that they paid some former railway officials to stay on the railway land. He however, claims that they paid the money used middlemen. Ojok claims that the plots in the railway reserve started way back in 2003 adding that some of the squatters have been using that land for farming.
Doreen Orachi, another squatter claims that she acquired land in the railway reserve in 2007. Despite claiming to have paid for the land, Orachi does not have a purchase agreement to prove her claims. Orachi insists that she paid shillings 100,000 to the person who sold her the land.
She claims that until recently officials of the defunct Uganda railways have been parceling plots of land to private developers. Orachi explains that the middlemen were charging them shillings 30,000 for a place to construct a pit latrine and place for a single room would go for between shillings 50,000 and 80,000.
Aggrey Muzira, the officer in charge Nakawa railway line says that he has tried in vain to evict the squatters. He says that several squatters claim that they paid for the land they are occupying. Muzira says that he was deployed in Nakawa in February 2011, and the found squatters occupying the entire railway line reserve land. He however, says that the situation has been worsened by the eviction of Nakawa-Naguru tenants.
