One of the widows of the late Charles Muhangi, Ms. Ann Mugisha, the mother of the deceased’s eldest son Lionel Emmanuel Muhangi, has called for negotiations between the deceased’s family and Kampala businessman Francis Drake Lubega in order to solve the land wrangles between the two parties.
Lionel Emmanuel Muhangi is one of the administrators of the late Muhangi’s estate, and his mother is of the view that President Museveni himself should mediate the two conflicting parties, since a whole 13 years in court hasn’t born a binding resolution of the conflict that has dragged on over ownership of contested valuable land in downtown Kampala.
“President Museveni should come in and mediate to bring fairness to the family of the deceased,” Ms. Muhangi says. “An independent valuer should also be brought in to establish the amount of money Horizon Coaches Ltd (which belongs to the late Muhangi) has lost over the last 13 years when the case has been going on in court. Then in discussion mediated with the president we can see what can be done to resolve the conflict and have both parties satisfied.”
“Maybe the best way is to have the Muhangi family occupy and collect rent from the buildings to recover the business lost in the last 13 years. The empty land should also be given to the family to develop,”Ms. Muhangi added.
Muhangi’s widow also said the Attorney General’s chambers didn’t follow the law last week in empowering Mr Lubega to evict Muhangi’s family and regain control of the buildings on the contested land.
“On April 29, 2015, the Court of Appeal issued an injunction against Mr Lubega in favour of Horizon Coaches Ltd. That was meant to maintain a peaceful status quo. Mr Lubega appealed this order in the Supreme Court but he withdrew the case and the court dismissed it in 2017. Right now, there is nothing before the Supreme Court to warrant the eviction of Horizon coaches,” Ms Mugisha observed.
Mr Lubega has twice held meeting with the Muhangi family this year (January 29 and February 14) and offered the family Shs3 billion as compensation for the contested land, but the Muhangi family spurned the offer, arguing that the compensation must be much more because of the late Muhangi and his estate have lost money (owing to Lubega’s occupation of the contested land) for a period of 13 years. The disputed property is estimated to be worth about Shs122b.