Kigo parents, pupils appeal to Kabaka over pending eviction
Ms Rose Nabisaalu (right), the head teacher of Kigo Prison Primary School, leads her pupils in a peaceful protest against the planned eviction of the school by the Buganda Land Board. FILE PHOTO
Wakiso- Teachers, parents and pupils of Kigo Prison Primary School have sought the intervention of Kabaka Ronald Mutebi II to save the school from a pending eviction by Buganda Land Board (BLB).
This comes days after BLB announced that the school will be relocated to Nakawuka village, a distance of nearly 20km away.
Last Tuesday, the BLB chief executive officer, Mr Kyewalabye Male, reacting to a question asked by a journalist at Bulange-Mengo in Kampala, said Mengo had entered an agreement with government to have the school relocated.
“That school will be relocated to Nakawuka together with the [Kigo] prison. And there are criminals in that school. They fraudulently got Shs40 million meant for BLB from Uganda National Roads Authority, which was for compensation for some piece of land and they used it. Police and the Inspector General of Government are moving to make arrests,” Mr Kyewalabye, who was flanked the kingdom premier Charles Peter Mayiga, warned.
But on Thursday, pupils, teachers and some parents held a peaceful protest at the school appealing to the Kabaka to prevail over BLB and spare their school.
The pupils carried placards with different inscriptions such as ‘Kabaka loves children’, ‘Kabaka loves education and sports’ and also carried photographs of him talking to children to bring out the picture that he cannot evict them from his land
Ms Rose Nabisaalu, the school head teacher, said some developers have already approached the school administration informing them that they bought off the school playground and want to utilise their land.
BLB had earlier ordered the school administration to halt construction of a Shs76m classroom block funded by central government, but they defied the order and the block is near completion.
Background
Buganda Kingdom has of late faced public criticism over the rate at which they are leasing out land, some occupied by Kabaka’s subjects and another housing public facilities to private developers.
Some of the recent victims iclude Nabagereka Primary School in Mengo-Kisenyi Parish and Mengo-Bakuli Market, whose land was parceled out to private developers.
The kingdom’s royal treasury (Enkuluze) also demolished part of the One Love Beach in Busabala on the shores of Lake Victoria, which is owned by local artist Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a Bobi Wine and also attempted to evict 78 families in Bugabo village, Luweero District.
