Buganda unveils plans to redevelop Mengo land

Kampala. Buganda Kingdom has lined up a bevy of new projects to develop Mengo Palace’s 216 acre piece of land located 3km outside Kampala’s Central Business District.
The attempt unveiled during the November 29 Buganda Investment Forum is the latest among efforts that have previously ended in futility.
For example, in 2007, Kabaka Ronal Muwenda Mutebi II commissioned a 17-member team to look at ways of re-developing the palace. The committee was chaired by former Anglican Archbishop Mpalaanyi Nkoyooyo, but the committee’s report, if compiled, was never made public.
There were also plans to construct an airport at the palace but the plan was abandoned in its infancy.
Mr Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa, Buganda’s minister for finance, investment, planning and economic development, in an interview with Saturday Monitor recently, said there were “extensive consultations that have lasted years” before the latest decision was reached.

“What delayed the palace opening for development were the many ideas different people had. Now, consensus has been developed and what remains is to find the right partners,” he said.
Following the consultations, Mr Nsibirwa said Kabaka Mutebi ruled that the palace sticks to its original use and that is what informed the proposed developments, which include a new palace building, a teaching hospital, an educational complex and trade and exhibition grounds.

Some kingdom loyalists have, however, criticised Buganda’s premier Charles Peter Mayiga and his team for not consulting widely before a decision was taken.
“I was alarmed by the fact that the Kattikiro [prime minister] wasn’t bringing out the plan for discussion or consultation but as information on a decision already taken and only awaiting execution,” Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze said in an open letter to Mr Mayiga.
Brig Kasirye Ggwanga, a senior presidential advisor on Buganda, has also been vocal while questioning how the project was arrived at.

Also, the decision to build “Mengo Palace (Lubiri) into a world class palace representing a modern Buganda Kingdom and the aspirations of its people” has been critcised, with some suggesting the new look does not reflect Buganda’s tradition.
“I am greatly opposed to the idea of modifying the great Twekobe built by Ssekabaka Muteesa II for whatever reason. I believe in conservation,” Ms Nambooze said.
But a kingdom official, who declined to be quoted because he is not authorised to speak on the matter, said some kingdom subjects had misunderstood the new proposal.
“One thing you should note is that the architectural plans you saw were just for demonstration purposes, they are not how the Twekobe or the hospital will look like, they are not even plans, rather concepts.”

The new development

The Mengo Palace land, according to the Francis Kamulegeya-led committee, will be parceled accordingly to the four projects with Twekobe (main house - palace) taking the largest share (70 acres), an education complex (50 acres), teaching hospital (60 acres) and exhibition grounds (36 acres).
The new palace will have such amenities like library, board room, lounges, banquet rooms, royal guest houses and kitchen buildings, among others.
It will also have office blocks with offices for clans’ affairs, office of the palace caretaker, the traditional reception house, office of the Kabaka’s chiefs and palace staff houses, among others.

In the proposed plan, the teaching hospital will have a helipad, a modern doctors’ village, a student hostel facility and recreation centres, while the education centre will “cater for up to 3,000 students from primary to tertiary education level”.
The international exhibition centre will have “trade promotion, enterprise development centres and function halls.”
Already, investors from India and Brazil have expressed interest in the project, according to Mr Robert Nsibirwa.

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