Officials want Sudhir assurance on Kololo Secondary School land

Left to Right: Kololo SS Principal Daphine Kato, Kampala Parents School chairman Samson Muwanguzi and Mr Sudhir Ruparelia appear before Parliament’s committee on land early this month. PHOTO BY JOSEPH KIGGUNDU

Parliament- Kololo Senior Secondary administrators on Thursday asked MPs investigating the takeover of the school land in Kampala to ensure their interests are protected in the new deal with businessman Sudhir Ruparelia.

Mr Sudhir was given a 99-year lease to redevelop the school playground into a modern sports facility.
Appearing before Parliament’s Select Committee on the land, Kololo SS administrators said they will accept the redevelopment of the schoolyard into a modern sports facility on condition that Mr Sudhir caters for the interests of the school.

Dr James Nkata, the board chairperson of Kololo SS, who led a team to Parliament, said they had engaged Mr Sudhir, who owns Kampala Parents School adjacent to the contested land, before signing a Memorandum of Understanding as recommended by the committee last month.

“We are not anti-development, what we are saying as Kololo SS is that any development on the school land must cater for our interests as sitting tenants. We welcome any developer as long as the project remains a sports facility.

The land was given away by Uganda Land Commission because it is public land. But in the new arrangement, we want assurance [from Mr Sudhir] that our interests will be protected,” Dr Nkata told MPs.

Although he had told the same committee that the school had not been consulted on the 99-year lease to Mr Sudhir, the Committee chairperson, Mr Robert Migadde, observed that in the school’s submissions to Parliament dated November 14, 2013, the city tycoon assured Kololo SS and the neighbouring schools that they would have access to the sports facility.

The school’s leaders told MPs that after the committee met Mr Sudhir over the matter and instructed him to sign an MoU with Kololo SS, the businessman immediately started discussions with them.

What the committee wants
Mr Migadde and other committee members said their interest is to ensure the MoU benefits Kololo SS. They asked Kololo SS to update the Committee on the progress of the new talks with Mr Sudhir.

The Committee also demanded to know the remaining acreage of the land currently housing Kololo SS.

Mr Sudhir could not be reached for a comment on the new deal, but when he appeared before the committee on May 6, he said: “We do not have any problem giving Kololo SS access to the facility because this is already provided for under the terms of the lease. This facility is not for Sudhir and his family, it is a sports facility for the community.”

Ministers aware
Sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi and Kampala minister Frank Tumwebaze have since confessed that they were consulted by Mr Sudhir and advised the project was a good idea as long as it remains a sports facility and other schools can access it.