Businessman Ham Kiggundu sues Kabaka over Kigo land

City businessman Hamis Kiggundu has dragged the Kabaka of Buganda to court challenging the decision and process that led to cancellation of land titles of a 140-acre piece of land in Kigo, Wakiso District.
Through his lawyers of Muwema and Company Advocates, Mr Kiggundu filed a civil appeal number 85 of 2022 at the High Court where he accuses the Commissioner Land Registration of acting with “double standards  and flouting the principles of impartiality and natural justice” to deliver a decision that favors the Kabaka.

According to the on November 2, 2022 memorandum of appeal, a copy of which was seen by this publication, Mr Kiggundu accuses the Kabaka of conniving with the commissioner to cancel his titles without following proper procedure. He wants this decision to be set aside.
He bases his accusation on the fact that  the commissioner ordered “cancellation of all [Kiggundu’s] freehold titles measuring 223 acres against a disclosed partial overlap of only 29.9 acres on the [Kabaka’s] mailo land…not ordering cancellation of Kabaka’s mailo titles overlapping Kiggundu’s freehold land by 87.12 acres”.
He also contends that it was improper to cancel his titles on the basis of alleged procedural irregularities which were “neither pleaded nor proved at the public hearing”.

Land commissioner's order 

On September 6, 2022, the acting Commissioner Land Registration Baker Mugaino cancelled land titles issued to Kiham Enterprises Limited, a company owned by Mr Kiggundu.
This followed a complaint by Mengo over freehold land titles awarded to Kiham Enterprises Limited on grounds that it was issued over already existing Mailo titles owned by Kabaka of Buganda. 
 Kabaka also complained that the titles were issued in a protected wetland (lake area) and that there were procedural irregularities in obtaining the titles.

In his ruling, the commissioner said he had based his decision on the fact that there was a title overlay against titles that were issued earlier.
“I note that the procedure of allocating the land for the freehold titles were flawed and had irregularities and the Commissioner Land Registration being the statutory custodian of the land register cannot maintain certificates of title on register where the due process of surveying, area land committee meetings involved illegalities that misled the office to issue titles,” Mr Mugaino ruled.

He also said the disputed land was a wetland protected by law and doctrine of public trust. He quoted Section 91(2) which gives him powers to cancel certificates where the same is issued illegally or wrongfully.
“Now, therefore, by the powers conferred upon me and under Section 91 (2) of the Land Act, having found that the certificates of titles comprised in Kyadondo Block 273 Plots 23974, 23975, 23976, 239777 subdivided from Plot 23977, subdivided from Plot 23720 were illegally issued, I hereby order that the same be cancelled and expunged from the register Block forthwith,” Mugaino ruled.

He notified the parties that they had a right to appeal his decision within 60 days, which Kiggundu has done, starting with a notice of appeal filed on October 31, 2022. 
Buganda Land Board spokesperson, Mr Denis Bugaya, said they had been served with the memorandum and record of appeal. 
“Our legal team has been instructed to study and handle the matter, and we are sure that we shall emerge victorious, just like we did during the initial hearing by the Commissioner Land registration because the facts surrounding this matter speak for themselves,” he said.

Genesis 
The story first broke earlier this year when Buganda kingdom stopped activities by Kiggundu where he wanted to construct a road between Mirembe Villas and Serena Hotel Kigo to gain access to what he said is his land. 
Mengo insisted that the land claimed by Kiggundu is Kabaka’s and all titles being peddled were acquired fraudulently. The matter was then referred to the Commissioner Land Registration.
Following a cancellation hearing, the commissioner ordered a joint boundary opening exercise to ascertain the true ownership of the contested land conducted by surveyors from both parties.

“According to both majority and minority reports availed to the office of the commissioner land registration, it is deduced by both reports that there is an encroachment by the freehold titles on the Mailo titles….Both reports agree that plots 23974, 23975, 23976 and 23977 owned by Kiham Entreprises Ltd encroach onto the mailo titles in plots 38, 87, 99 and 110 owned by the Kabaka of Buganda,” Magaino ruled.
 “Therefore, it is questionable how a professional survey could have been undertaken to create an overlay on an already existing title. Without any doubt, such survey process was flawed and an illegality that resulted in double titling.”

“It is, therefore, my finding that the freehold titles owned by Kiham Entreprises Ltd overlap the mailo titles owned by Kabaka of Buganda, which is illegal.”
The judgment also pointed out that the said land is a wetland given that it is found in the lake reserve area.
“It is therefore, my finding that even if the land was public land, Wakiso District Land Board illegally gave out in grant of freehold to Kiham the subject land when the same is a wetland. It was therefore illegal for Wakiso Ministry Zonal Office to title land which was a wetland on recommendation of the land board.”

There was also a contention on the procedure followed in the allocation of the said land, with Kabaka’s lawyers saying the area land committee used does not have jurisdiction over the said land.
“It is, therefore, my finding that the applications for grant of freehold having been handled by Kajjansi town council yet the land falls under Makindye Ssaabagabo Area Land Committee was illegal and affects the root of the title. The titles should therefore be cancelled having been flouted in the procedure of their allocation.”