Museveni’s hand in Amongi lands saga

Amongi attempted to play the Museveni card to avoid appearing before the commission, insiders say. Apparently, she lobbied cabinet and had convinced Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda to block the inquiry summons. She then informed the Commission that she could not appear because her answers would require her to reveal government secrets, including instructions from Museveni.

But Bumugemereire threw her letter in the trash bin and issued criminal summons for her to appear, warning that she would be arrested if she did not.
On the day she appeared, the Daily Monitor newspaper led with a bold headline: “Museveni to Amongi; go face land probe”.
The Land ministry that Amongi heads is very sensitive. But it has also proved to be a place of hot deals.
The minister Amongi replaced, Daudi Migereko, was also accused of influence peddling. Migereko’s company, Intraco Uganda Ltd and some of his family members were accused of acquiring land in Munyonyo, and high end areas on the edges of Kampala city where the new Entebbe-Kampala Express highway was designed to pass in order to get compensation from government.

It is this kind of mess Amongi was supposed to clean up. Ironically, she now appears right at the heart of the problem.

According to Yusuf Nsibambi, the Kampala District Land Board chairman, Amongi has also been at the centre of a fight over Plot 10 Nakasero Road, which houses Faze 2 Restaurant and is currently a subject of a court case.

In this case, Kuldip Singh Dhami, the registered owner of the property, has sued Kampala District Land Board, the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB) and the Commissioner Land Registration in the Ministry of Lands over attempts to grab his property.

The DAPCB was established to take care of properties belonging to Asians who were expelled by former President Idi Amin.

Part of its job has been to ensure the Asians who return to the country take back their properties. The board would also manage those that are not repossessed by the original owners.

President Museveni’s government later made the decision that after 1994, the properties that had not been repossessed by the original owners would be sold off and the board wound up.

When in 1994, the DAPCB tried to take over Kuldip’s property, he proved to them that he had never departed the country. As such, the board never managed his property.

Indeed, in a letter dated June 8, 1994, the then acting secretary of DAPDCB, confirms that Kuldip Singh Dhami did not leave Uganda during the 1972 exodus, and therefore his property is not subject to the provisions of the Expropriated Properties Act 1982.

“We have therefore withdrawn it from the list of properties to be sold,” the letter reads in part, “Any inconveniences caused to you and your client is regretted.”

With his lease on the property nearing its end in 2019, Kuldip approached Kampala District Land Board (KDLB) and offered to give up the remaining period on the lease in exchange for a fresh lease of 49 years. KDLB granted him the 49-year lease.

In 2012, Kuldip entered an agreement with KDLB effecting the lease for the 49 years.

However, in a letter dated October 30, 2017, Lands Minister Amongi, noted that the KDLB dealt with Kuldip in error. Apparently, she noted, the land in question was being managed under the DACPB.