Minister Nabakooba Commissions National Land Complaints Call Center

The Government has launched a National Call Centre to be used by the public in a bid to put to end the rampant illegal land evictions in the country.

This was opened by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Judith Nabakooba on Sunday in Wandegeya, Kampala.

While commissioning this centre, Nabakooba revealed that following President Yoweri Museveni’s directive to end the land evictions vice, the Ministry has since prioritized this issue.

“These illegal evictions have made life so difficult for many Ugandans. Many families throughout the country are living under the fear of the unknown. This is because of the constant threats to their homes and gardens,” Nabakooba said.

This initiative will not only focus on land evictions but also prioritise streamlining all major services by utilizing new technology innovations.

On this, Nabakooba noted that her office has received so many complaints about the difficulties that people face while accessing different services.

“A lot of the transactions and services are disconnected making it very frustrating for many people. Streamlining the operations of the entire land sector is therefore a core priority as well,” said Nabakooba.

The Call Centre has a Toll-Free Line operated by well trained personnel to engage with the public professionally and can hence use it to call on urgent issues of land. The Toll-Free Line is 0 800 100 004.

The public can use the Toll-Free Line for reporting cases of illegal land evictions, incidents of corruption and bribery and following up on reports of delayed land transactions.

More still, the public can report fraud, forgeries and those abating it, follow up on compensation and valuation issues and seek information on the projects under the Ministry via this line.

Nabakooba assured the public that because their call centre agents are well connected to all the law enforcement agencies in the country, agents will be able to mobilise relevant local authorities to respond with immediate effect when an issue is reported.

She urged all the Ministry staff and zonal offices across the country to embrace the initiative and ensure the call centre serves its purpose plus restore public confidence in the Ministry’s work.

The Ministry also looks forward to setting up a public online portal for the general public to enable accessibility of all relevant land related information.

“This will help us to overcome cases of bribery, corruption and middle men in land matters. All these efforts are being done to ensure that the Ministry delivers on its promise of improved service delivery,” Nabakooba remarked.

This is still part of the Ministry’s Electronic Land Management vision and the ‘e’ land management system will eventually take everything online according to the Minister.

The innovation has been instituted at a time when land eviction reports are skyrocketing however much the Lands Minister, Nabakooba recently halted evictions during the COVID-19 lockdown.

At her assumption of office, Nabakooba vowed to secure land rights for Bibanja holders, and banned middlemen in all the land offices countrywide.