Prime
Government tells Church to back off UPE school
Affected. Katwe Martyrs Primary and Nursery School which caters for education of poor children from communities in Makindye Division. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Rev Emmanuel Lutaaya of Katwe Martyrs Church who is the direct supervisor of the school on behalf of Namirembe Diocese, expressed fear that any more delays may lead to cancellation of their lease from Buganda Land Board, who are the landlords.
- Mr Allan Ssewanyana, the Makindye West area Member of Parliament, where the school is located, said they will fight to save the school.
Efforts by Namirembe Diocese to evict a Universal Primary Education (UPE) school at Katwe have been blocked, with the ministry of Education directing the church to back off.
The Education ministry permanent secretary, Mr Alex Kakooza, in a letter to the registered trustees of the school, and the native Church of Uganda, which is the estates manager of Namirembe Diocese, said any planned developments on the school must be well coordinated.
“I trust that you will cooperate with KCCA [Kampala Capital City Authority], the leadership and Katwe community to avoid any disruptions of services but most importantly to ensure coordinated social development of our people,” Mr Kakooza wrote on January 25.
His letter follows alleged threats by Namirembe Diocese to evict Katwe Martyrs School, which caters for primary school education of poor children from communities in Makindye Division.
Katwe Martyrs School is church-founded with Namirembe Diocese being the founding body.
The reported threats forced KCCA’s acting executive director, Mr Andrew Kitaka, to write to the Ministry of Education seeking its intervention.
Mr Kitaka’s letter alleged that the general school community and many stakeholders had felt threatened by the move by Namirembe Diocese.
The church wants to put up a commercial complex on the school land but KCCA rejected the plans, saying the piece of land is small for the planned development.
“The applicants were guided to either abandon the proposed development in favour of maintaining the school or first develop a relocation site in the vicinity and shift the school prior to redeveloping the current site and formally liaise with ministry of Education,” Mr Kitaka said in his letter to Mr Kakooza.
But Mr Kitaka claims that Namirembe Diocese has since ignored the advice. “His Lordship the Bishop of Namirembe led a delegation to meet the then outgoing executive director…to request that the church is allowed to immediately proceed with the proposed redevelopment. This was not granted,” Mr Kitaka said.
Mr Kakooza’s letter reaffirmed the same position and directed Namirembe Diocese to heed KCCA’s advice.
“For a government-aided school, which Katwe Martyrs School is, termination of education services is a much longer process that takes into account a number of factors and stakeholder’s interests before a final decision is reached,” Mr Kakooza wrote.
Mr Allan Ssewanyana, the Makindye West area Member of Parliament, where the school is located, said they will fight to save the school.
But the church officials dismissed claims of planning to relocate the school, saying their plans were intended at making improvements.
“This project is planned in three phases, the first one having been completed, we now look forward to the second phase, which has a commercial shopping structure to create incomes for the church,” Mr Guster Ntakke, the church mobiliser, said. Mr Ssewanyana had accused him as the brain behind the planned eviction but he said he was acting with other church members.
Mr Ntakke said the first phase had a house of the area priest at the first floor with commercial structures in the lower floors.
“Now we want KCCA to approve our second phase plan for a commercial building. We are not touching the school now, but we will relocate it to a space that will be available at completion of the second phase so that we build an ultra-modern 14-class school in phase III,” Mr Ntakke said.
What church says...
Rev Emmanuel Lutaaya of Katwe Martyrs Church who is the direct supervisor of the school on behalf of Namirembe Diocese, expressed fear that any more delays may lead to cancellation of their lease from Buganda Land Board, who are the landlords.
“Leases have strict time marks where an offered land must be developed or the lease is revoked. We have on several occasions engaged KCCA but they are still reluctant to approve our plans,” Rev Lutaaya said.
background
KCCA received an application in March 2016 to redevelop Katwe Martyrs Primary School, a request that was rejected because government claimed an interest.
Through negotiation, Rev Herbert Paul Nyanzi Kabanda, the diocesan education secretary, on behalf of the church later agreed to enter into a memorandum of understanding with KCCA through which the land would be demarcated for the school to avoid disruption of education services.
To date, KCCA officials have not received a signed MoU from the church detailing what will be required of each party.
“A draft MoU though sent to you on November 9, 2017 has never been signed, hindering processing of the development application. Nonetheless, from a planning perspective the plot size is also too small to accommodate both the proposed commercial activities, shops and a school as per the national physical planning standards and guidelines,” Mr Mark Bwambale, KCCA physical planning officer wrote in September 2018.
Advise. Mr Bwambale had advised the church to abandon the proposed redevelopment in favour of the school or first relocate the Makindye-based institution serving more than 300 pupils under government’s Universal Primary Education within the vicinity prior to redeveloping the two-acre land. The letter further proposed that if the church wasn’t comfortable with the first two options, then they can liaise with Ministry of Education to terminate the teaching and learning at the facility.
