KCCA, Catholic Church land row goes to court

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has accused Uganda Land Commission (ULC) of fraudulently leasing the land on which Ntinda Primary School sits to the Kampala Archdiocese of the Catholic Church and wants court to cancel the title.
The suit, filed by KCCA’s directorate of legal affairs, was lodged at the High Court on November 6, 2018.

Before going to court, KCCA claims they served the defendants with an intention to sue but they were ignored.
“The plaintiff’s claim and cause of action against the defendants is for a declaration that the lease granted to the 2nd defendant [Catholic Church] by the 1st defendant [Uganda Land Commission] in respect of the entire land of Ntinda Primary School, a government-aided primary school, comprised in Plot 20-26 Ntinda Road, Nakawa Division, Kampala, was done fraudulently, is illegal, null and void,” the plaint reads in part.
KCCA alleges that the actions of the defendants have inconvenienced and frustrated them and demands compensation amounting to Shs3.2 billion in damages.

Background
In 2014, KCCA applied to ULC for lease of the said land. After a delayed response, they followed up the application on August 11, 2015 and were granted a 99-year lease over the suit land on March 5, 2016.
“The 2nd defendant [Catholic Church], despite having full knowledge of the plaintiff’s interest and Ntinda Primary School’s occupation of the suit land, surreptitiously applied for and obtained a lease from the 1st defendant [ULC] for a duration of five years effective January 1, 2016 in respect of the entire land. By letter dated October 13, 2016, the 2nd defendant went further and applied to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, for the transfer of Ntinda Primary School to Ntinda Parish. The above actions were done without the knowledge and consent of the school management … The plaintiff avers that the lease grant was procured by fraud, misrepresentation and illegalities,” KCCA’s suit adds.

Documents Sunday Monitor has seen indicate that ULC, on March 5, 2016, approved a 99-year lease for 12 primary schools following an application from KCCA to have land titles for each of its schools to avoid incidences of encroachment.
But two months later, ULC approved another five-year lease of the same piece of land to the Registered Trustees of Kampala Archdiocese.
KCCA had applied for the leases on April 11, 2014 for Ntinda Primary School, Naguru Katali, Nakasero, Old Kampala, East Kololo, Nakivubo Settlement, Kiswa, Kyambogo, Buganda Road, Shimon Demonstration, Railway Children and Ntinda School for the Deaf.

“Following your application for lease for different schools under your jurisdiction, I am pleased to inform you that the Uganda Land Commission, during its meeting of 10 to 11 February 2016, granted your request. Titles will be prepared in respect of each individual school for a 99-year lease term with premium being nil and ground rent peppercorn. This letter is to inform you of this development,” the ULC chairperson, Mr Isoke Baguma, wrote to the then KCCA executive director, Ms Jennifer Musisi.

KCCA then accepted the lease offer on April 20, 2016.
But when KCCA initiated the process of obtaining title to the land from the Ministry of Lands, Mr John Karuhanga, the commissioner of land registration, informed them that the offer had already been given to the Registered Trustees of Kampala Archdiocese on May 20, 2016, a month after ULC received a lease acceptance letter from KCCA.
“I refer you back to ULC as your application cannot be registered,” Mr Karuhanga informed KCCA on June 14, 2017, more than a year after KCCA received the grant lease for the same land.

KCCA had also got a nod from the then Education ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr Rose Nassali Lukwago, who on February 3, 2016, following a meeting between her office, KCCA and ULC, had agreed to expedite the process and offer the leases to KCCA.
“I wish to add my voice to the executive director of KCCA’s letters of May 2014 and August 2015 to grant leases to the schools. Further delay to grant leases as you very well know, may lead to a repeat of Nabagereka Primary School situation and that is not tolerable,” Dr Lukwago said.

Enter Archbishop Lwanga, Musisi
Instead, on October 13, 2016, Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga wrote to Dr Lukwago requesting to have the school transferred to the church’s management, arguing that they were now the custodian of the contested land.

“I am writing requesting for the transfer of Ntinda Primary School to Kampala Archdiocese. Ntinda has grown from a small Christian community into a big and dynamic parish with many children and youth. In order to serve better, we applied for more land for development. The land adjacent to Ntinda Parish Church where Ntinda Primary school is currently located was leased to the parish. We are requesting your ministry to allow us take over the redevelopment of this school,” Archbishop Lwanga wrote.
He added: “We propose that the Uganda government hands over full ownership of Ntinda Primary School to the Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala, which will redevelop the school into a modern institution.”

However, a further scrutiny of the lease documents shows irregularities in the dates. For example, while the lease was offered on May 20, 2016, the document shows that the five-year lease grant was backdated to begin on January 1, 2016, five months before it was approved.

On learning about the development, KCCA on November 29, 2016 wrote to Dr Lukwago’s successor, Mr Alex Kakooza, detailing their struggle to retain the school as a government school offering universal education to city dwellers and how it had become difficult to develop the school because of an ownership disagreement.

In response, Mr Kakooza asked ULC to cancel the lease.
“Any transaction over this particular land or any other of the 11 schools that were leased to KCCA is barred in law. By copy of this letter, the chairman of ULC is informed of the position of the ministry on the matter and request to rescind the commission’s decision to lease the land for Ntinda Primary School to the Registered Trustees of Kampala Archdiocese,” Mr Kakooza said in his January 4, 2017 letter to the secretary of Uganda Land Commission.

Before Mr Baguma could respond to Mr Kakooza’s request, Archbishop Lwanga wrote another letter to KCCA seeking a partnership in the school, and pledging to continue with the UPE programme but added that the church would invest in other initiatives to meet the dynamic needs of the current Ntinda community.
This letter followed an application to KCCA in August 2017, to allow the church start constructing a classroom block and a boundary wall on the contested land.

Still hopeful, Ms Musisi reminded Mr Baguma in a November 20, 2017 letter that their failure to cancel the lease they had ‘illegally’ given to the church had frustrated the authority’s effort to implement infrastructural development worth Shs400 million at the institution.
KCCA subsequently declined to approve the church’s proposal to develop the land and reimbursed Shs6.8 million the church paid as inspection fees.

“The land comprising the proposed development is the same land where Ntinda Primary School is located yet the proposal includes a development plan for several facilities in future that will entail demolition of the existing school. The authority claims proprietary interest in the land and continues to occupy it in the form of Ntinda Primary School. We regret to inform you that we are unable to process your application until the above issue has been conclusively resolved by the Uganda Land Commission,” Mr Mark Bwambale, said on April 6, 2018.

Seeking solution
Amicable agreement. In an earlier interview with Mr Robert Nyombi, ULC secretary, he appealed to the two parties to negotiate and find amicable ground, arguing that both institutions are expected to offer services to the public.

“Why don’t they meet and agree how best they can offer these services. Is KCCA running this school to generate an income? If it is to provide a service, has it managed it in the best way? Can a Catholic Church use its financial power and improve the education services in that school?” Mr Nyombi asked.
He doubted whether they can cancel the title the Lands ministry has already given to the church, arguing that the matter is now out of their mandate.

Pulling ropes. The church leadership in October last year during a news conference at St Charles Lwanga Church in Ntinda maintained that they were the rightful owners of the school land.
In attendance was head of laity, Mr William Bakawa, Msgr Charles Kasibante, the Kampala Archdiocese Vicar General, the Ntinda Parish priest, Fr Edward Muwanga and their lawyer, Mr Francis Buwule Kabonge of Buwule and Mayiga Advocates.

ULC blamed. According to Mr Buwule, it was ULC’s duty to notify KCCA after they leased the land to the church. In addition, he said they had applied to ULC to extend their lease to 49 years, which request hadn’t been responded to.
Church plan. Fr Muwanga, said their plan is to increase enrolment to 1,500 to accommodate children from both the rich and poor background.
It wasn’t established if the church had filed its defence after our efforts to speak to Fr Muwanga were futile by press time.

Background. Ntinda Primary School currently has about 800 pupils under government’s Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme. It sits on 4.5 acres in Ntinda, Kampala. It was built by the Protectorate Government in 1954 and handed over to then Kampala City Council (KCC) in 1962, after the country attained its independence. Subsequently, KCCA succeeded KCC and took over the school’s management.

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