President Yoweri Museveni has castigated judicial officers for awarding hefty sums of money for pieces of land government buys for its projects.

Museveni on Thursday commissioned the Fort Portal-Kamwenge road a section of which was delayed because the land owner wanted Shs 1bn from Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) to allow the road pass through his land.

Government had valued the piece of land in contention at Shs 89m.

“…the judges who award people Shs 1 billion, how do you award someone that tune of money for a small piece of land in a rural area?

“Look at that road; do I have any shares in it? Isn’t it you who are going to use it?” Museveni asked.

The president promised to investigate the integrity of such judges, suggesting that they could be compromised.

Museveni also told the people that his National Resistance Movement (NRM) government had put land into their hands.

“Before the white man came, we believed that land was for God; when the white man came, he told us that the land was for the queen; when other governments came, they told us that it was public land. It is the NRM who said that land belonged to the people.”

Meanwhile, Museveni has suspended his land talk shows due to his tight schedules.