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Government, municipality row over Jinja agricultural show land
Government, municipality row over Jinja agricultural show land. PHOTO BY PHILIP WAFULA
What you need to know:
- In July 2017, Kyabazinga William Gabula Nadiope IV, in a message delivered to the farmers by the Busoga Kingdom prime minister, Dr Joseph Muvawala, warned whoever was harbouring plans of selling off the land.
Ministry of Lands is embroiled in a 12-acre land row with Jinja Municipal Council (JMC).
The land, on Plot 1-9 Bridge Street, comprises the open space adjacent to the agriculture show ground in Jinja Municipality.
With concerns growing that the land always remained idle after the annual agricultural shows, sections of the Jinja District leadership okayed the construction of a five star hotel to earn some revenue.
On January 15, the National Physical Planning Board of the Ministry of Lands granted JMC a conditional approval to change five of the 12 acres from a green belt to a Five Star Hotel. However, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Ms Dorcas Okalany, last week faulted JMC for allegedly reneging on the conditions which were agreed upon and deemed their actions ‘an illegality in all aspects’.
Key conditions were that JMC was to fence off and develop only five acres while the remaining seven acres would be maintained for the public.
JMC was also to amend the terms and conditions of the developer’s agreement to reflect the change in land use and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry specifying the hotel’s role in the maintenance of the remaining public open space. “The Ministry has learnt that the entire 12 acres is being enclosed by a perimeter wall contrary to the conditions of approval and the Ministry teams did not see any approved building plans,” Ms Okalany noted.
She added: “The Ministry team concluded that the perimeter wall development was illegal in all aspects.”
Efforts to get a comment from the Jinja Municipal Town Clerk, Mr Francis Byabagambi, were futile as he neither answered nor returned our calls by press time. However, when contacted, the municipal spokesperson, Mr Rajab Kito, said he was in a meeting.
Following last year’s show, Mr Muhammed Mbentyo, the district councillor representing Jinja Central Division, while addressing journalists, said: “My biggest worry is the idleness of the land when it is not time for the agriculture show.”
“The land is too big but it is only busy for one week in July and idle for the rest of the months yet in some places like the Uganda Manufactures Association show ground, activities keep taking place. It is now more than 20 years but no modernisation has taken place yet the organisers make over Shs700m; what we want is the continuity of economic activities on the showground,’’ he added.
The Uganda National Farmers’ Federation president, Mr Richard Oganga, during the same period, said some district leaders were preparing to relocate the showground and pave way for the construction of a Five Star Hotel but his team was committed to ensuring that the original purpose for which the showground was put in place is maintained.
When contacted yesterday, Mr Othman Abdulnoor, the chief executive officer for Black Eagles limited, said: “The land title in my possession is of 12 acres and that is why I decided to erect a perimeter wall around it. It not until of recent that I have seen different stories in the paper.”
While defending the Shs2.5b from the bank, Mr Abdulnoor said: “Anyone is free to mortgage their land or property in the bank.”
Was JMC duped?
A source yesterday told this newspaper on condition of anonymity that Black Eagles Limited had allegedly secured a land title for that land before mortgaging it in a bank at Shs2.5b.
“What is making it hard for JMC to accept the five acres of this land which were earlier regarded as a leisure park is that Jinja Central Division (JCD), as custodian of that land, attempted to repossess it in vain,” the source said.
Adding, “When they (JCD) sought the intervention of the Inspector General of Government they were told to pay the Shs2.5b and repossess the land but they didn’t have that money.”
This reporter couldn’t independently verify these reports by press time.
