The locals in Jinja have joined the Jinja Referral Hospital administrators in protesting against the decision by the State Minister for Lands, Sam Mayanja, to allocate part of the hospital’s land to a group of area Muslims.

The protest saw residents lock the hospital gate for over an hour, reflecting the community’s strong opposition to the land allocation.

The first protests were witnessed last week during the minister’s visit to Jinja, where he reportedly issued an order that gave Muslims ownership over the disputed hospital land.

According to David Mukisa, the chairperson of the hospital’s Board of Governors, a previous court sitting ruled in favour of the hospital; however, Muslims decided to politicise the case and presented fake land titles to the minister to fulfil their agenda of owning the land.

“The court ruled that the land belonged to the hospital, but Muslims played politics and presented many false documents to the minister to convince him to believe their argument,” Mukisa said.

Mukisa said that the administration of the hospital has severally engaged stakeholders in the health sector to use the disputed land to construct a blood bank facility, which will improve healthcare service delivery.

He revealed, however, that various activities are ongoing on the disputed land, which further complicates the situation.

Despite the minister’s efforts to address the conflict, residents are demanding a reversal of the decision, emphasizing the importance of preserving the land for hospital development and improved service delivery.

The heads of the hospital have urgently appealed to the government to intervene and halt Minister Mayanja’s directive to transfer a portion of the hospital’s land.