Controversy as Wakiso authorities lease land occupied by 500 people
This file photo taken in 2018 shows a house in Manyago Estate in Entebbe Municipality. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Estate residents insist leasing the land to a third part is contrary to a consent judgment in which court permitted leasing the land between government and tenants.
Manyago Housing Estate residents in Entebbe Municipality have accused Wakiso District authorities of leasing their land to a third party without their consent- and in violation of a court order.
More than 500 people at the estate in Manyago Village claim eviction looms after municipal authorities allegedly leased the land.
On July 16, 2020, court permitted Entebbe Municipal Council to lease the land or plots at the estate.
But court’s order was through a consent judgment between Entebbe Municipal Council and the tenants.
Now, GEM Advocates lawyer Stanley Okecho says his clients have established that Entebbe Municipal Council created a lease involving a third party on the disputed land meant for sitting tenants, per the agreement.
According to him, the court order in mention required government to value the land and determine how much occupants would pay.
Documents obtained by this publication show that Aisha Kitenda, the former Town Clerk of Entebbe Municipal Council January 16, 2023 asked the chief government valuer to determine the value of the land to execute consent judgement.
But the chief government valuer was yet to respond, even as Town Clerk Emmanuel Mugisha Gakyaro January 18 2024 wrote another letter calling for valuation.
“The Concern was raised in the Auditor General’s Report for the year ending June 30, 2022 where it was recommended that the Accounting Officer expedites the process. The same was re-echoed by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. In the absence of the valuation report, we cannot proceed,” Gakyaro wrote.
Speaking to Monitor on Monday, lawyer Oketcho said “tenants were surprised to learn that the land, to which the government valuer has delayed valuing, was reportedly leased through fraudulent means to a third party in total contempt of court.”
According to Oketcho, a search report from the lands ministry indicates that the land was leased to Bugembe Kaggwa Ssegujja for 49 years starting January 20, 2023.
Documents also show that Ssegujja acquired the lease on the land at a Shs20million premium and an annual rent of Shs100,00- and that whereas Entebbe Municipal Council entered the consent judgement with the sitting tenants of Manyago Estate in 2020, the lease to Ssegujja shows it was entered in March 2011, an issue that tenants say reflects possible fraud.
When contacted, Ssegujja challenged the complainants to run to court.
“I’m a Ugandan eligible to get lease in Uganda and if someone is contesting the lease I got, this means they should go to court and contest because it is a title documentation,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Defending his 49-year lease on the land, he added that: “There are documentations in the ministry of lands. I do not work in the ministry of lands and I do not type nor sign titles.”
