UGANDA, Mityana | Real Muloodi News | The Buganda Land Board (BLB) and Mityana Municipal Council are disputing over the ownership of a 0.49-hectare piece of land. The Mityana Municipal Council is constructing its headquarters on the property. However, the BLB demands a halt to construction, arguing that the local leaders have not followed the required procedures.
The BLB claims that the property, Block 148 Plots 2-6 and 8-10 on Muwemba Road in Mityana Town, is under the ownership of the Buganda Kingdom. However, the Mityana Municipal Council insists the central government owns the property.
The Buganda Land Board “is a professional body set up by His Majesty the Kabaka of Buganda to manage land and property returned under the Restitution of Assets and Properties Act of 1993.”
On June 28, the Buganda Land Board chief executive officer, Mr Simon Kabogoza, wrote a letter to the Mityana Municipal Town Clerk defending the BLB claim to the land. He insists that the plot belongs to the Buganda Kingdom. The Ugandan Central Government gave the property back to the Buganda Kingdom in 2013.
However, the municipal officials insist that the property belongs to the central government. Additionally, the Mityana Municipal Council leased the land, and the lease expired in 2017.
Mr Simon Kabogoza writes, “…I, therefore, implore you to halt any construction until an application is made by yourself to BLB, an agent of the Kabaka of Buganda and the same approved.”
Contrarily, the Mityana Municipality senior physical planner, Mr Deo Mukalazi, argues that the land is not the property of the Buganda Kingdom.
Mityana Town Council “was established by the Act of Parliament on July 1 2015, gazetted on September 9 2015 under statutory instrument No. 47, 2015. The former Mityana Town Council and Busimbi Sub County formed the administrative boundaries of Mityana Municipal Council.”
He defends that the former Mityana Town Council purchased the property, in the 1990s, from Lawrence Mukudde and Henry Kaala, who were leasing the land from Uganda Land Commission (ULC). This lease was for 49 years and consequently expired in 2012, then the Mityana Town Council renewed the lease for five more years. Currently, the Town Council is working towards continuing the lease for 99 years.
Nevertheless, the Mityana Municipality mayor, Mr Faustian Mukambwe Lukonge, argues that the Mityana Town Council should not have started construction on the land because “they do not have a title or valid lease.”
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