Biiso War Memorial Secondary School in Biiso sub county Buliisa district is facing expansion hurdles after part of its land was allegedly grabbed by the Buliisa area Member of Parliament, Steven Mukitale Biraahwa.
Biiso War Memorial School is one of the few government aided secondary schools in the oil rich Buliisa district started by Biiso Sub County in 1992. The Universal Secondary Education school has an enrolment of close to 1000 students.
The sub county allocated the school a ten acre piece of land, but the school administrators say part of it has been grabbed by Biraahwa whom they accuse of using his position as area MP.
Biraahwa has a home on the contested land and has surveyed it, though he denies the accusations of grabbing the school land saying he legally owns it and has documents to back his claim.
The MP instead accuses his political rivals of propagating the claims in order to taint his reputation.
Simon Kyalimpa, a teacher at Biiso Memorial School and the man spearheading the battle to regain the land says the school planned to build four new classroom blocks, a library, a lab and two latrines on the land.
Kyalimpa says the school has received 393 million shillings from the World Bank as support for this project which has now been frustrated by this land conflict.
Kyalimpa is the man who petitioned the Inspector General of Government over the alleged land grabbing in 2009.
In his April 20, 2011 letter, IGG Raphael Baku ordered the Buliisa Chief Administrative Officer Nandala Michael to liaise with the Biiso Sub county authorities to institute legal proceedings against the MP Biraahwa since the matter was civil in nature and involved a land dispute.
But six months later, no legal action has been preferred against the MP. Uganda Radio Network could not reach the Buliisa Chief Administrative Officer.
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