Outgoing Rukiga Woman MP, Husband Exposed in Plot to Grab Public Market Land

Outgoing Rukiga District Woman MP Caroline Kamusime Muhwezi and her businessman husband Andrew Muhwezi have been named as the ghost buyers behind the fraudulent acquisition of public land hosting Rushebeya market, with Andrew spending the Easter weekend warning traders to vacate the premises.

Residents and civil society groups in Rukiga District are now calling on President Yoweri Museveni, the Minister of Local Government, the Inspector General of Police, and the Inspector General of Government to intervene immediately, halt the evictions, and prosecute all officials found to have participated in the scheme.

The couple allegedly executed the acquisition in collusion with LC3 Chairman Eddy Mugisha, LC5 Chairman Robert Kakwerere, and Rukiga District Resident District Commissioner Zadoki Kamusime. Residents say the involvement of district-level political and security leadership makes a local resolution impossible and that only intervention from the top can protect the hundreds of traders who depend on the market for their livelihoods.

The situation has taken on greater urgency following Caroline Kamusime Muhwezi’s failure to retain her Woman MP seat for Rukiga District. Observers say the loss of political office has removed the protective cover that public position previously provided, and that the couple is now moving aggressively to assert physical control of the land before any authority can step in.

Critics allege that the acquisition was never purely commercial. On multiple public occasions, including events attended by President Museveni, the outgoing MP petitioned for government compensation over the same land. Investigators and sources familiar with the transaction now allege the couple deliberately bought public land at severely undervalued prices specifically to position themselves for a larger compensation payout from the government, a move that would constitute abuse of public office and defrauding of the state.

“No reasonable person can justify losing such a prime piece of public land for peanuts,” a source told this reporter. “The figures simply do not add up unless you factor in the compensation angle.”

The roots of the scandal stretch back to 2015, when Rwamucucu Sub County lost a civil case to a one David Gakyaro, who had sued the sub county in Kabale High Court after it illegally felled his trees and was awarded eleven million shillings in damages. After the sub county paid only six million shillings, Gakyaro returned to court and obtained an order attaching the market land. The order was made possible by the failure of former Sub County Chief Justus Ampeire and LC3 Chairperson Justus Tushabomwe to appear in court to contest the matter. It was through this court process that the Muhwezi couple moved to acquire the land.

On November 8, 2017, unknown individuals began surveying the market land. Days later, inmates from Ndorwa Government Prison were brought in to demarcate and fence off the premises. Local residents intervened and attempted to lynch the inmates, who were evacuated before the situation worsened.

Later that same month, on November 24, 2017, MP Kabafunzaki formally petitioned the Justice Bamugemereire Land Inquiry, calling for an investigation into how the buyers came to acquire the land and on what legal basis the transaction was conducted. Despite that petition and persistent complaints from residents, no meaningful action followed and the expected government compensation never came.

The Muhwezi family, the LC3 and LC5 Chairpersons, and the RDC have not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.