Mulwana family loses city land

KAMPALA

Barely a month after the renowned industrialist, James Mulwana passed on, a local court in Kampala on Thursday, delivered its judgment and held that he fraudulently acquired 0.75 acres of city land that belonged to the widow of the late Buganda loyalist Daudi Ochieng.

Justice Percy Tuhaise of the High Court Land Division, ruled in favour of Ms Rehema Namuli, saying she had satisfactorily convinced court that her land title was dubiously changed without her knowledge.

Further in her judgment, she ordered that the property and the land title be returned to the Ms Namuli. “The defendants did not purchase the suit land from the plaintiff. There were no bona fide purchases. It’s my finding that the plaintiff has proved fraud against the defendants,” ruled the judge.

The case arose on August 19, 2004, with Ms Namuli Ochieng,60, accusing the late Mulwana of illegally acquiring the ownership of her land on Block 243, plot 786 in Kitintale, Kampala, measuring 0.75 acres. Court documents show that Ms Namuli acquired the property on June 26, 1971. Ms Namuli and Mulwana were childhood friends, with a four-decade friendship.

When the matter came up for hearing, Ms Namuli in her testimony last year, narrated that her woes started in December 2002, when she borrowed Shs30m from Mulwana to service a loan. She said she handed him her land title to act as security. She stated that they consented she would refund Mulwana’s money after three months in exchange for her title. But to her dismay, Ms Namuli claimed when she returned the money, a month after borrowing it, two months before the repayment deadline elapsed, Mulwana declined it saying he had already sold the property.

awesaka@ug.nationmedia.com