MP Muhanga hands over UBC land title

MP Abdu Katuntu shows off the title deed returned by Ms Margaret Muhanga. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa.

Kampala.

Burahya County Member of Parliament Margaret Muhanga yesterday succumbed to pressure from Parliament and surrendered the title deed for the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation land in Bugolobi despite her earlier claim that she did not have it.

Ms Muhanga returned the land title to the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) through her lawyer Caleb Alaka.

“The committee issued a directive to Muhanga to provide the title. We gave her a deadline of August 5 and she complied with it,” COSASE vice chair and Bukedea Woman MP, Anita Among, said at the sidelines of a committee retreat in Munyonyo, Kampala.
“We are going to meet as a committee and decide on the next course of action,” she added.

On August 2, Ms Muhanga had told the committee, which has been investigating the fraudulent purchase of UBC land in Bugolobi, that she raised Shs10 billion cash to buy the property by selling her goats and cows.

The matter triggered raging public debate throughout the week especially on the viability of raising Shs10 billion by mere sale of goats and cows.

On October 29, 2015, a five-judge panel of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld earlier orders by the High Court and the Court of Appeal to cancel the sale agreement for the said UBC land on Faraday Road in Kampala, measuring 23.1 acres. The Supreme Court ruled that it was a fraudulent transaction.

Ms Muhanga and four others (SINBA (K) Limited, Haba Group (U) Limited, Deo and Sons Properties Ltd, Twino Matsiko Gordon T/A Tropical General Auctioneers) had appealed to the Supreme Court, challenging orders of the lower courts which cancelled the land transaction and reinstated UBC as the rightful owner of the property.

However, Ms Muhanga’s appeal was unanimously dismissed by the Supreme Court’s five-judge panel.

The Supreme Court confirmed reinstatement of UBC on the certificate of title and called the transaction “a scam”.