The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mukono Municipality Health Director Dr Anthony Kkonde is on the spot for taking over land that was housing the District Community Youth Centre.
The centre, gazetted in the early 90s, houses Kyaggwe Social Centre, a resource facility which was established in 1995, with funding donated by Nanji Kalidas Metha. The place at the edge of the district administrative triangle within the heart of Mukono Central Division also comprises a basketball court and a garden.
It was purposely reserved to promote recreation and sports activities, computer and ICT services, leisure and a counselling point for youths. But in 2019, Dr Kkonde reportedly attempted to take over a plot of land measuring 0.642 hectares in Upper Kauga behind the Mukono district headquarters.
However, his efforts were frustrated by the district leadership which pointed out that he had wrongly acquired the place. They insisted that the plot had been accommodating Mukono Health Centre IV workers long before the facility was elevated to hospital status.
The district was prompted to use force to stop Dr Konde’s developments on the said land. They confiscated his building materials and arrested some of the builders on top of reinstating health workers who had vacated the premises.
Dr Kkonde insisted that he had secured a lease of 47 years from Buganda Land Board on May 31, 2017, with the intention of establishing a skilling centre for youths and a kindergarten for orphans. However, upon realizing that the district was not willing to listen to him, he shifted the efforts to the youth centre claiming to have secured authorization from Namulondo Investments.
The then Chief Administrative Officer-CAO James Nkata warned him not to interfere with the place since it is also under the custodianship of the district. Working together with the office of the Resident District Commissioner, Nkata stopped him from undertaking any renovations on the building at the centre.
He also wrote to the Municipal Town Clerk Godfrey Kisekka seeking answers on why he had chosen to instruct their official to renovate buildings under the district mandate. Kisekka denied knowledge of the matter.
Dr Kkonde resumed his campaign following the changes in leadership with Elizabeth Namanda taking over office as the new Chief administrative officer and Rev. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa taking over the office of the District Chairman. He has lately erected a signpost indicating that the centre is the new home and headquarters of his organization ‘Child Care and Youth Empowerment Foundation.
The foundation manager turned the resource centre’s administrator offices and storerooms into her new home. The foundation also ordered the Uganda Peoples Defence Force to vacate part of the land which they were occupying as a base for those monitoring the town.
The new CAO Elizabeth Namanda says they are yet to write to the Solicitor General for guidance but also to Buganda Land Board to prevail over ‘Namulondo Investment’s move which seemed to support a government official to take over government property well knowing that it is under the management of the district as the sitting tenant.
Denis Bugaya, the Buganda Land Board Spokesperson advised the district to regularize all their properties in order to stop schemers from taking over their land.
In our recent interaction on the telephone, Dr Kkonde declined to respond to our queries about the new developments and referred our reporter to the chairperson of Antony-Namumira Ward Chairperson Steven Kiggundu, who supervises his administrative activities on the ground. However, Kiggundu also declined to comment on the matter.
Mukono District has lost about 29 acres of land to private developers.
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