On Wednesday afternoon, the Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Katumba Wamala narrated to Parliament in a plenary session about a ‘sacred tree’ along Mpigi- Kampala Expressway that a certain clan refused to be demolished stalling the construction of the road.
According to Katumba, government offered the said family Shs150m which they rejected claiming that the money can’t appease the spirits.
However, Court in Mpigi has today ruled in favour of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) stating that the claimant Hussein Katamba should instead be given Shs4.6m that was initially offered for his 0.083-acre piece of land on which the tree is found.
According to court, the site is not a gazetted cultural site and therefore, Shs500 million compensation was unjustifiable.
The construction works for the 23.7km expressway had stalled partly because the owners of the land had asked for Shs500 million to appease their clan spirits before the tree is cut down.
“We have successfully defended the matter in Court and court has granted that we only compensate the claimant for kibanja and not as a cultural site,” said UNRA’s media relations manager, Allan Ssempebwa.
The project which kicked off in May 2020 was expected to be complete in May this year, but construction works currently stand at only 15 percent.