Old taxi park plot owners to construct above surface

Private developers claiming pieces of land in the renovated old taxi park will use the remaining space, the Minister for Kampala City and Metropolitan Affairs, Hajjat Minsa Kabanda has announced. She disclosed while officially reopening the renovated old taxi park on Saturday afternoon.

Out of the 0.949 hectares of land that hosts the old taxi park, only 0.081 hectares belong to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). The private developers such as DKS Uganda Ltd owns 0.135 hectares, Kabale Distributors Ltd 0.55 hectares, Key and Ham Investments Ltd 0.058 hectares, Abamwe Transporters Ltd 0.067 hectares, and Lukyamuzi Investments Ltd 0.058 hectares.

The companies acquired the land from the defunct Kampala City Council. During the renovation works, the developers accused KCCA of encroaching on their pieces of land. As a result, KCCA entered an understanding with the developers to allow them to lay the carpet, saying they will hand over their land after the works, which they say didn’t happen.

The companies ran to the High Court in October last year and secured an interim injunction barring KCCA from reopening the taxi park. They secured another injunction in December last year barring KCCA, the government, and their agents from working on the contested land until the high court determines their case.  The matter is yet to be decided.

Ms Kabanda, however, says that part of the entire land covered by the carpet belongs to the taxi park. She says that private developers will construct above the taxi park without tampering with the carpet surface.

“We agreed with these private plot owners in this taxi park that they will construct their buildings above this area. Taxis will remain operating bellow the buildings,” she noted.

She thanked the developers who agreed to drop the temporary court injunction barring the use of the taxi park, which has enabled taxis to enter the park.

Mr Rashid Ssekindi, the chairperson of Uganda Taxi Operators Federation noted that from the negotiations, it was agreed that the developers would construct toilets and restaurants in some demarcated areas within the carpet area.

He called upon taxi operators to cooperate with the developers when the time comes because there will be some restructuring and transfer of some stages to other parks. 

None of the developers could be reached for comment at the time of publishing this story.