President Yoweri Museveni has compared Uganda to a wealthy man’s home with naughty children who squander the wealth.

Speaking on Buddu FM radio station in Masaka Municipality in his ongoing countrywide tour to sensitize the public about the proposed Land Law amendment, Museveni urged the Greater Masaka people to stop encroaching on swamps and planting eucalyptus trees in them, informing them that encroachment would lead to long dry spells.

“Uganda is like a rich man’s home where the wealth gets depleted because the children squander it,” Museveni, Uganda’s three-decade president, said.

“There is a lot of wealth in the lakes. If you left the Nile Perch alone for nine months they would multiply abundantly but our people are catching the young fish.”

Gifted with resources and beautified by nature, Uganda remains a third world country, because it’s resources either remain unutilised or are squandered by a few powerful individual.

Environmental degradation has also changed the weather patterns, leading to long dry spells, floods and landslides.

Museveni continued his attacks on the press and opposition for peddling lies that a proposed land amendment to make easy for government to compulsorily acquire land for its projects was meant to help officials grab land.

“The media, opposition politicians and thieves say that Museveni wants to steal people’s land. If I want to steal land, how does government acquisition of land to build roads, benefit Museveni?” he asked.

Museveni also revealed that he would set up land tribunals to resolve disputes since courts were burdened with case backlogs.

“The courts of law have case backlogs because they are dealing with many different cases but the tribunals will have a few cases because these government projects are not many,” he said.