How Masaka children’s park ended up with two land titles

Masaka City officials are embroiled in a land dispute with the family of the late Francis Kakumba over ownership of the children’s park land. 

Latest developments indicate that the city council and Mr Kakumba have titles for the children’s park, with stakeholders concerned about the management of public land.

The park, according to the Masaka Town Council leasehold title issued on November 13, 1961, measures 2.07 acres (about 0.837 hectares). The park sits on plot 64-74 on Elgin Road in Masaka and the title was issued under the Urban Authorities Ordinance of Masaka.  

Meanwhile, Mr Kakumba, a businessman who died in December 2020, got a freehold title for plot  58-72 on Elgin Road on August 17, 2011, measuring 0.85 hectares (about 2.1 acres). 

The land in dispute is a spacious ground adjacent to Masaka Secondary School’s main gate. 

It is currently occupied by more than 1,000 vendors who were relocated to the children’s park to pave way for the construction of the new Masaka Central Market which is yet to be occupied.

Mr Vincent Kasumba Zziwa, the president of Masaka City Development Forum, said his office has a copy of the 1961 title. To his dismay, Mr Zziwa said the late Kakumba’s family also secured another title for the same land in 2011.

Mr Zziwa blames technocrats whom he said have failed to come up with a clear inventory of all city properties.

“Those technocrats have adamantly refused to provide an inventory of all city properties to stakeholders such that we know the public properties and those which are not,” he said.

He accused technocrats and some top-ranking politicians in Masaka of aiding fraudulent land transactions and the sale of council properties.

“Some technocrats have occupied the city council properties like Kkumbu Estate and they are replacing the old structures with new apartments, an indication of being part of a syndicate of land grabbers in Masaka City,” he said.

A source at Masaka City Council intimated to the Daily Monitor that the council has lost more than Shs50 billion in fraudulent land transactions in the past decade.

Mr Swaibu Sula Mbaaya Makumbi, a social rights activist and senior citizen in Masaka City, said the children’s park is one of many public properties that were illegally sold off to private developers.

“On several occasions, we have invited the minister of Lands to camp in Masaka and exhaustively investigate or order  an audit into public property transactions, but no action has been taken in the last four years,” he said.

  Mr Makumbi wants the officer at Masaka Zonal land office who issued the title of 2011 arrested, adding that the officer should resign in public interest.

“In Masaka City, we don’t have public servants but mere salary earners who are occupying offices to aid theft and fraudulent transactions on public properties,” Mr Makumbi said.

He said that even committees tasked to investigate how public properties ended up in individual hands have failed because the people involved in the deals are powerful and have frustrated all the processes through corruption and intimidation.

Ms Alice Nannungi, the chairperson of Masaka City Building Control Committee, said someone who claimed to be a member of late Kakumba’s family approached her seeking a permit to fence off  the Children’s park to pave way for its redevelopment last month. 

“Kakumba’s family proved ownership with a land title issued in 2011, but when I consulted with the city council they equally had another title and that is why they turned away the woman who wanted a holding permit,” she said.

 Daily Monitor’s efforts to speak to Kakumba’s family were futile, save for Mr Isaac Mayanja, who, however, declined to comment on the matter.

“You Monitor (Monitor Publications Limited) people, you failed our plan to take that land adjacent to Masaka Central Police Station and now you have started on this, why are you following us?” he said before hanging up the telephone. 

Meanwhile, Mr Baker Mugaino, the acting commissioner of land registration in the Ministry of Lands, said: “I cannot comment on something I did not authorise , let the Masaka Zonal Land Office handle ,” he said by telephone  

However, officials at Masaka Zonal Land Office declined to comment on the matter. The officials instead referred this publication to Ministry of Lands spokesperson, Mr Denis Obbo.

By press time, Mr Obbo had not answered our repeated phone calls. Neither did he return our calls. 

According to Mr  Sam Ssekyewa, a Masaka based lawyer ,  the law provides that where there are two title deeds in respect of the same land , the first one to be issued is the one protected by law .

 “The law envisaged such a scenario and the commissioner of Land Registry under Section 91 of the Land (Amendment ) Act ,2004 has the powers to cancel the second title for having been issued in error,” he said. 

Mr Ssekyewa said some people in land offices normally do not come on the ground and usually base their decisions on the information in the system to issue new titles.

“Sometimes they   take a long time to update their data and when they issue a certificate that overlaps another certificate that is when they realise that the second one was issued in error,” he said.

Last year, it emerged that a total of 20 land titles for properties owned by the city were missing. 

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, Masaka Golf Course, and several green belts and plots within the central business area.

Ms Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City mayor, recently said  some  private developers  who fraudulently acquired  public land have since used some of them as collateral to secure bank loans.

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.