Ministry of Lands asked to investigate Chikankata district for selling same land to multiple clients

Some Nansenga residents in Chikankata district have called on the Ministry of Lands to quickly conduct a post-mortem on how the local authority sold out land estates to developers between 2014 and 2015.

Spokesperson for the residents Japhet Banda said about 30 indigenous people who were allocated plots to buy from the council have discovered that their properties belong to two or three people.

Mr. Banda said about 30 families are faced with eviction following the discovery that their pieces of land on which they are settled were sold to other people by the local authority.

He said efforts to resolve the matter with Chikankata district council for the past three years have yielded negative results hence the need for the Ministry of Lands to investigate the matter.

Mr. Banda said there was no way the local people of Nasenga estates can be denied an opportunity to buy land when they have been in the area for a long time.

He said people strongly suspect that there was corruption involved during the sale of Nasenga land by the local authority noting that there was no way their pieces of land could belong to more than one person.

Mr. Banda said it was high time government brought to book all those suspected to have enriched themselves through the sale of land belonging to the local people.

But when contacted for a comment, Chikankata District Council Secretary, Milly Muluti, said the over 30 families settled on Nasenga land illegally.

Ms. Muluti said the claims were baseless because the said land belongs to government and it is gazetted.

She explained that the Nasenga land has been a government property for many years adding that after Chikankata was declared a district in 2013, the local authority advertised plots for sale to all those who were interested to build in the residential area.

Ms. Muluti further said the local authority in the area will not condone illegal settlers who invade people’s land.