The police are investigating the alleged destruction of an ancestral graveyard belonging to the estate of the late Muwanga Omuweesi at Nakigalala, near the Entebbe Expressway in Wakiso.
Detectives attached to Kajjansi Police Station have registered a case of alleged disturbance of the peace of the dead following a complaint filed by Benjamin Kalumba Ssebuliba, one of the administrators of the estate of the late Muwanga Omuweesi.
Police have also registered a separate case of alleged assault following a complaint lodged by Jane Nantege, a member of the family.
Both complaints were made against security guards attached to Madhvani Group.
Kalumba later led police detectives to the area where the graveyard was allegedly destroyed and explained what he described as years of violence and intimidation suffered by family members during the long-running legal dispute with the company.
He accused the company of using its influence to facilitate the exhumation of more than 125 ancestral graves, whose remains he claimed were taken to unknown locations before the destruction of another burial site where more than 17 graves were allegedly damaged.
According to the family, on the night of July 17, 2026, a group of people armed with hoes and other tools entered the disputed land and destroyed the remaining graves.
The family alleges that Madhvani Group Limited has repeatedly violated an existing court order by destroying their property, including houses, toilets, and crops.
“I received a telephone call from one of my younger sisters who lives here, informing me that the bodies of our relatives had been exhumed and the entire place had been flattened. This act is inhuman, and we are pleading with the authorities to help us recover the bodies of our deceased relatives,” said Kalumba, the former mayor of Nakawa.
He said the family has been involved in a legal battle with Madhvani Group Limited since 2013 and has patiently waited for the court to determine the matter.
Kalumba said President Museveni and former Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi had previously assured the family that justice would prevail and that land could not simply be taken away.
He added that, as administrators of the estate, they obtained a court order directing that the status quo be maintained until the main case is determined.
“This act is intended to destroy evidence after they learnt that the court is expected to visit this place. It is an attempt to frustrate the planned locus visit by destroying the evidence,” he said.
Kalumba appealed to Museveni to intervene and help the family regain ownership of the land, saying investigations conducted by several government agencies had supported their claim.
He said investigations by the Police, the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters chaired by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, and the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) all concluded that the family owns the disputed land.
Kalumba further claimed that Madhvani Group is relying on a freehold title that was superimposed on an existing mailo title to claim ownership of the approximately 300 acres originally granted to Muwanga Omuweesi, a former chief in the Buganda Kingdom.
Court records show that Madhvani Group, its subsidiary Kakira Sugar Limited, and the Commissioner for Land Registration are jointly sued in a case that has remained before the courts since 2013.
In 2022, the High Court (Land Division) issued an interim order restraining Madhvani Group, its agents, employees and workers from claiming, selling, transferring or mortgaging the land at Nakigalala in Kajjansi, Wakiso District, until the main case is concluded.
The administrators of the estate, Benjamin Kalumba Ssebuliba and Robert Kayongo, are seeking ownership of the disputed land on Block 374 measuring about 306 acres.
Alexandria Nanteza, a granddaughter of the late Muwanga Omuweesi, alleged that workers employed by Madhvani Group Limited had repeatedly attacked family members using machetes, sticks and other weapons while destroying their homes, toilets and crops.
“They arrogantly came and cut down our crops. They have now resorted to spraying dangerous chemicals that have destroyed our food crops, yet there is a court order which we continue to respect,” she said.
Nanteza also accused the company’s workers of destroying part of the family’s remaining ancestral graveyard after learning that the court was expected to conduct a locus visit.
Jane Nantege, another granddaughter of the late Buganda chief, alleged that male employees of Madhvani Group Limited assaulted and strangled her while ordering the family to leave the land.
“They always boast that even if we report them to the Police, nothing will happen because they are powerful. We already lost a graveyard containing more than 125 of our ancestors whose remains were illegally exhumed and taken to unknown places. The few remaining graves are now also under threat,” she said.
When contacted for a comment, Madhvani Group Financial Controller Origit, who is supervising activities on the company’s tea estate, declined to comment on the allegations.
According to court documents, Kalumba and the estate maintain that their great-grandfather, Muwanga Omuweesi, is the lawful owner of the disputed mailo land.
They argue that the land was granted to him by Kabaka Chwa II of Buganda.
The documents further state that a mailo title was created on October 20, 1913, and a certificate of registration, numbered FC9662, was issued and sealed by the British colonial administration.
The family also contends that a separate freehold title was later created in 1925 in the names of Uganda Rubber and Coffee Estates Limited and Nsimbe Estates Mawokota Uganda without any indication that the original mailo title had been extinguished.
