Land wrangles in Uganda are characterised by mostly three things; public servants, tycoons, and government.
Another public servant holding the office of the Attorney General William Byaruhanga is in the spot over land that belonged to Nakasero Primary School in Nakasero, Kampala. The circumstances under which Byaruhanga came to own the land are contestable, given the fact that it is government land.
In a Parliament session yesterday, Wednesday, December 19, 2019, Kawempe North MP Latif Ssebaggala raised concerns and alleged that the Attorney General, through his company Pine Investment Company Ltd is plotting to sell the land spanning over 2.2 acres near Nakasero Primary School to government.
Government invited bids from companies from which government will buy prime land in Kampala that will be used by Exim Bank investors to construct Exim Bank Headquarters to be called AfroExim Bank.
Three companies submitted their bids including Byaruhanga’s Pine Investments Company ltd, but Ssebaggala said that Byaruhanga is using his influence to woo Ministry of Finance officials into unfairly awarding his company the contract to sell government the land at Shs14.6 billion per acre.
Ssebaggala warned that if this goes through, Ugandans are bound to lose billions of taxpayers’ money to Byaruhanga, and asked Speaker Kadaga and Prime Minister Rugunda to pay close attention to this matter.
In response to these allegations, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said that government takes these allegations serious and that they are going to launch an investigation into the matter.
“Government is going to investigate these allegations. In the next sitting, the Government will provide a preliminary report about this matter, we take allegations being made seriously especially ownership of the land,” Rugunda promised.
Speaker Kadaga tasked the Prime Minister to make sure that government is not lured into buying this disputed land.
“That is a serious allegation if it is true, if the land being sold is actually government land being sold to Government at an exorbitant price and possibly involving a member of your cabinet cost. Can you undertake that nothing shall happen, that Government will not be forced to buy that land before you come back to this House,” she said.