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Queries as Kiira Motors automotive project stalls
President Museveni (in white), State minister for Trade David Bahati and other officials during the laying of the foundation stone at the Kiira Motors Corporation plant in Jinja on Saturday. PHOTO/PPU
What you need to know:
The multi-trillion project that is planned to be constructed on part of the contested Bajjo Central Forest land in Bbaale Sub-County was expected to begin early this year
A section of leaders in Kayunga are querying the status of the planned Kiira automotive project that is supposed to be constructed in the district.
The multi-trillion project that is planned to be constructed on part of the contested Bajjo Central Forest land in Bbaale Sub-County was expected to begin early this year.
But according to local leaders, there is no sign that the project will take off any time soon.
The leaders led by the district vice chairperson, Ms Zalwango Kabazzi say there is suspicion that the highly publicised progress may not take off due to illegalities in acquiring the forest land on which the project is to be carried out.
“The Kayunga District Council last year approved the Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) Master Plan and there was assurance from KMC officials that work would commence soon, but nothing is on ground,” Ms Kabazzi said last week.
During the district council meeting in which the KMC master plan was approved, Mr Albert Akovuku, the KMC director for production, said innovators from all over Africa would fly in their vehicles for testing at the facility in Kayunga District, whose construction would “commence soon”.
The factory is expected to create more than 200 jobs besides improving social infrastructure in the area.
“We shall have manufacturers flying in vehicles for testing. It is the first such facility in Africa,” Mr Akovuku told district councillors.
However, almost nine months after the pronouncement, nothing is on site although Mr Akovuku had said they would start with construction of roads and other social infrastructure.
Mr Moses Muhumuza, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) legal manager who termed the project as a “flop”, explained that they had dragged to the High Court Mr Morgan Isingoma who illegally sold the land to KMC, accusing him of trespass and illegal acquisition of a title on a forest land.
“I don’t think that project will take off because the land was acquired illegally. The process of cancelling the title is ongoing. I don’t know what will happen to the parties that were involved in the illegal acquisition of the forest land,” Mr Muhumuza explained.
NFA speaks
He further revealed that NFA was in the process of giving licences to individuals to plant trees in the depleted Bajjo Forest Reserve, noting that the forest is still in NFA’s control.
A Cabinet minister privy to the matters of the project, who preferred not to be named in order to speak freely, also told this publication that “the project had flopped after some people went to higher offices and spread harmful rumours about it.”
The minister did not reveal the people who spread the rumours nor the offices they went to.
If the project fails to take off, the government will have lost billions of taxpayers’ money that was used to buy the land.
The Ssabanyala, Capt Baker Kimeze, and some activists protested the sale of the forest land to pave way for construction of an automotive factory, citing environmental concerns and the dubious ways involved in the transaction.
When contacted, Mr Albert Akovuku said: “On the status of the project, I really don’t have anything to tell you now about its status”.
When pressed harder on whether the project would go on or is a flop as some people claim, Mr Akovuku declined to commit himself on any of the two.
Background
Besides having a vehicle testing ground, Mr Akovuku, said the $2b (about 7.6 trillion) project was expected to have facilities such as industrial infrastructure, vehicle plant, transportation infrastructure like primary and secondary roads, and environmental infrastructure.
