The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Minister for Lands Beti Kamya has directed the Commissioner Survey and Mapping to conduct a joint site survey to establish the interests of all the claimants.
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Four institutions involved in the Kyambogo land saga have agreed to conduct a joint land survey.
The Buganda Kingdom, Kampala District Land Board and Ministry of Education and Sports all claim part of the land currently occupied by Kyambogo University.
Kyambogo University and the Buganda Kingdom are claiming ownership of about 407 acres housing the main campus in Banda, Kampala. Ministry of Education is claiming 10 acres and Kampala District Land Board (KDLB) 60 acres.
The Minister for Lands Beti Kamya has now directed the Commissioner Survey and Mapping to work with all parties involved to conduct a joint site survey to establish the interests of all the four claimants.
According to the commissioner land registrar at the Ministry of Lands John Karuhanga, the ministry has a land title that was issued in 1962 in the names of the Uganda Land Commission and that it has an insertion of Kyambogo Technical Institute (now Kyambogo University). However, Karuhanga says that the title doesn’t indicate the acreage.
The Kyambogo University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Elly Katunguka says the University has a freehold title with 137.5 hectares of land that they acquired from the Uganda Land Commission and that it is 60 hectares of this land that is under contention.
He says the survey is important to help them determine the status of all the other claims.
However, Kampala District Land Board chairman David Balondemu says that in 2017, the cabinet resolved that the National Environmental Management Authority-NEMA degazettes the catchment area which is part of the land that Kyambogo claims ownership. He says the land was degazetted and the government is in the process of repossessing it.
Balondemu says that since no authority owns the land, it is under the management and administration of the land board.
Balondmeu says they need to resolve the dispute such that Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA can continue with its Physical Development Plan 2013-2023.
The Buganda Kingdom also says the Kabaka of Buganda owns part of the land having inherited it from his grandfather Christopher Kisosonkole. The land claimed by Buganda is over 500 acres.
In 2019, the Kabaka of Buganda wrote to the President over the land that had been given to Kyambogo. The President then directed Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda to constitute a committee to investigate the matter and consider either compensation or buying of the land.
Minister Kamya says they don’t know the outcome of the Prime Minister’s committee.
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