Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has said businessmen who claim to own plots in the Old Taxi Park do not deserve to be compensated because they never carried out any developments on the land in question.
The Kampala Lord Mayor made these remarks while addressing journalists at City Hall yesterday.
“They claim to have bought those plots way back in 2005 and until now, they have failed to take a position; obviously they have no legal basis. As KCCA, we sat and made a recommendation to council that we should repossess those plots. And the little money those people had paid be refunded,” he said.
The Lord Mayor argued that the businessmen purchased public assets, which was illegal.
“They don’t deserve compensation because they never carried out any development and their contracts were illegal. They were purchasing public assets. It is like someone buying a parliamentary building and when they fail to take a position, they claim compensation. No way,” he said.
Lukwago said it is sad for individuals to break up the park whose recent renovation cost government Shs10.9 billion.
He also said his office has never seen a copy of the memorandum of understanding that was signed between KCCA, the central government and the plot owners.
“We have pushed for the copy but is it being treated like classified information. It is the reason we summoned the KCCA director legal together with the executive director to share with us the report and we are waiting for the same come Thursday,” Lukwago said.
“We have decided to call for a special council sitting today to discuss all these matters and come up with up with measures on how to protect that public facility,” he added.
On Sunday, KCCA deputy spokesperson Robert Kalumba said they were in the process of paying off the plot owners so that the city authority could retain full ownership of the park.
This was after taxi operators from 12 stages in the park were displaced as the businessmen who claimed plots in the facility started demarcating and fencing them off.
Lukwago yesterday described the operations in the taxi park as illegal.
“To the best of our knowledge, nobody okayed that process. There were internal processes to address those wrangles because they are very outstanding. They have been there for more than a decade,” he said.
Quoting a status report on the park presented to the council by a KCCA councilor, Kizza Hakim Sawula, dated September 30, 2021, the Lord Mayor said in February 2005, KCCA subleased the plots on the periphery of the Old Taxi Park to several business people and companies for a period of five years, thereby reducing the carpet area of the park to about 2.34 acres (0.949 hectares).
The subleases were extended for another five years in June 2010.
Nevertheless, the vice chairperson of the Old Taxi Park, Peter Kirabira, appealed to KCCA to expedite the process of paying off the plot owners to relieve the tension among taxi operators.
Daily Monitor also learnt that the top KCCA leadership held a closed-door meeting with that of taxi operators in the park.
The park was still heavily guarded by the security officers yesterday.