SFC soldier, businessman fight over Namanve land

Both parties claim they bought the land through the right procedures. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Eagle Traders Ltd on June 7, petitioned the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led commission into land matters to resolve the impasse. The fight has had other investors to question ownership of land in the industrial park and they have since tasked government to probe all the wrangles to guarantee safety of ownership of the land that they have already acquired.

Kampala. A Special Forces Command (SFC) soldier, Maj Moses Musinguzi, and an investor of Congolese origin, Mr Mumbere Muthamaini, are currently entangled in a land wrangle in Namanve Industrial Park, Daily Monitor has learnt.

The 0.484 hectares land sits on Plot 449 Block 133, Kyaggwe in Namanve, Mukono District. Both parties claim ownership of the land.
The plot is currently being guarded by security operatives.

Documents which Daily Monitor has seen show that both parties are claiming ownership of the land.
Mr Mumbere, through his company of Eagle Traders Ltd, bought the land from Alia Property Developers on January 23, 2018, at $225,000 (Shs860m)

Assumes ownership
The transfer of the land title into his names was made on February 2018 by the Registrar of Titles through a Stanbic Bank mortgage following a successful survey on the land to ascertain its boundaries and ownership.

Documents further show that Alia Properties had acquired the land from Green Hedges Estate Ltd on November 24, 2014. Green Hedges Estate Ltd had acquired the same land from Uganda Investment Authority (UIA). The body oversees the operations at the industrial park.
However, Mr Charles Frederick Otese, Mr Mumbere’s estates manager, said Maj Musinguzi quickly fenced off the land, claiming ownership.

“He [Maj Musinguzi] used the same material we had put on site and he fenced off the land. We later got clearance from authorities to repossess the land but I was arrested and later given a police bond. We bought this land in broad day light after going through a thorough procedures but an army official wants to grab our land with impunity because he works with the President,” Mr Otesse said.

He also claimed that Maj Musinguzi is threatening to cause trouble to him if he does not back off from the land.
However, Maj Musinguzi dismissed the claims, saying he bought the disputed land under clear procedures and got a title from the Uganda Land Commission (ULC).

His documents, copies of which this newspaper has seen, show that his company (Mmacks), acquired the same land from Ms Charlotte Kemigisha on February 8, 2017, at Shs770m. Maj Musinguzi said ULC had leased the land to Ms Kemigisha.
“Those people have their land on a different Block number [111] but they have gone ahead to claim my land, Plot 449 on Block 133 Kyaggwe yet I genuinely bought this land. I am a businessman with a high reputation and I cannot grab any one’s land. They should verify with the person who sold them that land,” he said.

Maj Musinguzi said both he and Mr Mumbere are victims of circumstances of an old land wrangle in Namanve involving government agencies.
Ms Stella Kanyike, the UIA spokesperson, acknowledged the dispute, but she said the land was released to Mr Mumbere, hence he is the legal occupant.

“But then another person has come up with claims of ownership of the same piece of land and he claims that his land title was issued by the Uganda Land Commission in 2016. If this is indeed the case, then there must have been a case of double allocation. We will follow up the matter to establish his claims,” Ms Kanyike said.
Efforts to speak to Mr Dennis Obbo, the Lands ministry spokesperson, to corroborate Maj Musinguzi’s claim were futile as he could not be reached.

Issue before land probe

Eagle Traders Ltd on June 7, petitioned the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led commission into land matters to resolve the impasse. The fight has had other investors to question ownership of land in the industrial park and they have since tasked government to probe all the wrangles to guarantee safety of ownership of the land that they have already acquired.