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Bailiffs duped us to sign Ndeeba church eviction order - clergy
The rubble of St Peter’s Church, Ndeeba that was demolished
Andrew Bagala
Kampala. The Namirembe Diocesan Vicar, who signed an eviction order that led to the demolition of St Peter’s Church, Ndeeba in Kampala City, has said they were duped by court bailiffs.
Rev George William Kyeyune, who is a former parish priest of Katwe II that covers six churches including St Peter’s Church, appears on the court eviction returns as one of the officials that witnessed and signed the eviction order that granted administrators of Late Evelyn Nachwa vacant possession.
Rev Kyeyune said his intention was not an approval that he had accepted to hand over the property, but he wanted to use it as an opportunity to get the eviction documents.
“When the bailiffs led by Moses Kirunda and police came to evict us, we asked them to furnish us with the court documents that gave them the rights to do so. They insisted that we had to sign a document first to get the eviction order. They didn’t allow us to read the contents of the order first. I signed because I wanted to get the document to help us with legal processes,” Rev Kyeyune said in a Friday interview with Daily Monitor.
The demolition was ordered by the High Court after a 12-year legal battle on who the rightful owner of the property was.
Dan Ssemwanga, John Kajoba, Edward Balunga and Steven Nakibinge, who are joint administrators of estate of the late Evelyn Nachwa sued Lucy Nsubuga, an administrator of Late Namirembe Bishop Dustan Nsubuga estates, Constance Kizito and Commissioner of Land registration for alleged forgery of a special land title. Ssemwanga and his siblings later won the case.
Ssemwanga’s lawyers say defendants never appealed since November last year, which the defendants deny. The defendants say they entered the notice to appeal days after the judgement, but court officials tactfully delayed to give them court proceedings that they were to base on in their appeal until late July, just days before the demolition.
Several religious leaders, politicians and members of the public were angered by the incident at St Peter’s Church, which were in disregard of court procedures and presidential directives on such actions during the lockdown.
However, it was later found out that an eviction had been carried out in March and a demolition was authorised by the High Court.
Rev Kyeyune said one of the church leaders Godfrey Sentamu demanded from the bailiffs a copy of the eviction order, but he was told to sign somewhere first, but was given different documents.
“Sentamu brought a court decree. So we sent him back to the bailiff to bring an eviction order. When he told them that they had given him a wrong document, police officers arrested him and went with him,” he said.
The demolition has since led to the arrest and prosecution of 23 people including the new owner of the property Dodoviko Mwanje, senior police officers, Kampala Capital City Authority physical planner and others for alleged conspiracy to illegally destroy the property.
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