Owino land to be auctioned over loan

Land owned by St Balikuddembe Market (Owino) Stalls and Lockup Shops Owners Association Limited (SSLOA) will be auctioned if the traders fail to pay money on their mortgage in dfcu Bank in three weeks.
According to an announcement, KTA Advocates that represents dfcu Bank indicated that after the expiry of the notice in 30 days, the sale of the property will be done.

The land measures one and half acres in Kisenyi in Central Division, Kampala City.
Mr Edwin Tabaro, a lawyer with KTA Advocates, said SSLOA borrowed money from the bank, which it has failed to pay back. 

“SSLOA hasn’t made any payments in the last eight years,” Mr Tabaro said.
In 2010, SSLOA obtained Shs4b from DFCU Bank to pay premium and ground rent for a subleased land on which the market is situated. SSLOA mortgaged land titles as collateral for the loan in Mengo-Kisenyi.

The land was meant to resettle traders as the main market was redeveloped.

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), which owns the land on which the main market is situated, received the Shs4b premium from SSLOA.

Background
Mr Godfrey Kayongo, a leader in SSLOA, said after paying, city authorities refused to hand over the leases to the market land.

“The interest on the loan in the bank continued to around Shs9b. We told KCCA to refund the money so that we could repay the loan, but they took their time. We sued KCCA and got a consent judgement for them to pay,” Mr Kayongo said. KCCA didn’t pay.

In 2018, SSLOA dragged KCCA to court again for failing to implement the consent judgement.
In Justice Musa Ssekaana’s judgement, he awarded SSLOA special damages including “Shs4.8b as the total loan advanced, interest on the loan amount based on the prevailing bank interest rate on the total loan from 4-3-2011 until date of judgement.”

Justice Ssekaana ordered the KCCA to pay Sh500m legal fees to defend recovery action and Shs1.15b loss for the sale of Kibuga Block 12, Plot 388 Mengo Kisenyi.
Later KCCA paid a fraction of the money.

Mr Kayongo said we paid it to the bank and they are yet to pay a balance of Shs2b to the bank.

“KCCA passed the budget to pay us the balance of Shs7bn. However, some authorities in KCCA have refused to pay us. Their intention is to fail us so that the land is taken by the bank and they buy it cheaply,” he said.

He said they would have to go back to court to force KCCA to pay the balance to enable us to pay the bank.

Efforts to get a comment from the KCCA spokesperson, Mr Simon Kasyate, were futile as he did not answer our repeated calls.