Titles for 20 city plots go missing

Masaka City leaders have raised concern over the alleged loss of 20 land titles for properties owned by the city. 

The city property inventory indicates that the affected properties include Kkumbu Playground, Masaka Regional Referral Hospital mortuary, the newly constructed Masaka Central Market, Katwe Market, Masaka Bus Park, and Mayor’s chambers.

Others are Old Kkumbu Estate, Lions Nursery School, Masaka Public Library, Kkumbu Forest Reserve, Transit Parking Yard, Kyabakuza Health Centre II, Kimaanya residential house, Kimaanya Kabonera Sub-county headquarters, Bwala public playgrounds, City yard, Masaka Golf Course, and several green belt spaces and plots within the central business area.

It is not clear how and when the titles were lost.

In an interview with Daily Monitor on Monday, Mr Michael Mulindwa Nakkumusana, the Mayor of Nyendo–Mukungwe Municipality, wondered how titles of public properties were lost.

“We task the city clerk and his team to explain the whereabouts of the titles because they are the custodians of documents and property of the council,” Mr Mulindwa said.

The Masaka City speaker, Mr Tonny Ssempijja, said although 34 properties are mentioned in the inventory, more than 60 properties, including public schools, health centres, and green spaces are not mentioned.

“Most of the properties are not listed in the inventory which makes us believe that maybe they are no longer owned by Masaka City Council,” he said in an interview on Monday.

The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, who is also the Nyendo–Mukungwe Municipality legislator, advised the city authorities to secure special titles for the affected properties.

“The procedure is clear, one can get a special title. The lands office should work hand in hand with the city leaders to sort out that,” he said.

 Ms Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City mayor, said she discovered a lot of irregularities in land acquisition and the city has lost many of its assets through fraudulent land deals.

“We have been pushing for this investigation since we entered the office. There are visible irregularities which should be investigated including irregular leases, leasing land in wetlands, leisure parks, and greenbelts,” she said.

She revealed that some unscrupulous individuals have since used public land/assets in Masaka City as collateral to secure bank loans.

Ms Namayanja added that she is worried that the city may fail to expand its physical infrastructures due to lack of public land.

“Even in areas which we annexed to the city, much of the land is privately owned, and it may require us to purchase land at a higher cost if we are to change it for public use,” he said.

Mr Geofrey Bemanyisa, the Masaka City clerk, said they are going to do a follow up on the matter and will give a comprehensive report to council soon.

In an earlier interview before leaving office, Mr Godfrey Kayemba, the former city mayor, said some of these properties were lost under ‘unavoidable circumstances’.

“Although some public properties were grabbed, council approved the sale of some of them to meet the budget obligations then. There was also need to pay court awards in litigation matters against council,” he said.

Background

Masaka leaders have over the years faced public criticism over illegal parceling out of public land and open spaces to private developers. Some of the properties so far sold off include the Mayor’s Gardens, Children’s Park, Town Clerk’s residence, Old Kkumbu Estate, public cemetery, and a host of forest reserves.

In June 2015, the High Court in Masaka issued an injunction suspending the district land board from conducting any transactions on land and properties owned or managed by the council.

This followed an application filed by some council authorities challenging what they termed as continued irregular sale and allocation of the public land in the area.

Last year, Mr Steven Asiimwe, the then Masaka Resident City commissioner, petitioned the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to carry out an independent land audit following the rising land cases in the area. However, the ministry is yet to respond to these concerns.