UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | Property Tycoon Sulait Ssemakula, the owner of real estate firm Ssema Property Consultants, has been remanded to Luzira Prison on charges of intentional property damage and land grabbing.
According to the charge sheet read by Grade One Magistrate Rose Nsenge, the businessman and his accomplices who are still at large are alleged to have maliciously damaged property belonging to a 99-year-old woman on December 14th, 20th, and 28th in Namugongo, Kira Division in Wakiso District.
Ssemakula has also been linked to the illegal demolition of a home in Ntinda on Boxing Day, at the time when the occupants were away in the village.
“The accused person is involved in several cases of similar nature, that is Kira CRB 011/2023, SD 60/20/12/2022 and Kira Rd CRB 36/2022 and if considered on bail, he will interfere with investigations,” reads the charge sheet in part.
Luke Owoyesigyire, the Deputy spokesperson for the Kampala Metropolitan Police, said that Ssemakula was arrested on January 6, 2023 and held at Central Police Station.
“He has been remanded over the Namugongo case. We are still investigating the Ntinda case; I do not know whether the investigations into the Ntinda case are complete,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.
According to Mr Owoyesigyire, Ssemakula was questioned about how he purchased the Ntinda house then sold it, despite there being three pre-existing owners.
Owoyesigyire added that there was a caveat on the property, nevertheless after buying the property, Ssemakula sold it to a person who died, and then resold it to two other people.
Later, Semakula Yusuf, who asserts to be the owner, purchased the same property.
Ssemakula has been remanded to Luzira Prison until January 23rd, 2023.
The Backstory
A family returned from Christmas to find their family home in the upscale Kampala suburb of Ntinda, Kampala had been demolished.
A group of men purportedly jumped over the perimeter wall of the house, opened the main gate and used graders to demolish the home at around 6pm on Boxing Day. The home’s contents and a vehicle were also damaged.
Family members at the demolished property claim that when their father Johnson Orech passed away in 1995, he bequeathed the property to his wife, Lucy Mary Orech.
According to the couple’s daughter Evelyn Atim, her mother hadn’t transferred ownership of the property into her name. Ms Atim says her mother went to the United Kingdom, leaving the property under the management of her sister, Stella Aber.
Then in 2008, unbenounced to Mrs Orech and her daughter, the land title for the property was transferred multiple times in a matter of minutes.
“On July 4, 2008 at 2:28pm the name of the title was transferred from our late father’s name to our mother’s name. She was not in the country. A minute later (2:29pm), the same title was transferred into the name of Stella Aber,” Ms Atim says.
On October 21, 2008, the land title was again transferred into the name of another person. This prompted Mrs Orech to put a caveat on the property and seek legal redress.
However, Mrs Orech lost her court case in 2018, and Mr Mutwalib Kabogoza was deemed to be the rightful owner of the property. Ms Orech filed an appeal, which is still being heard before the courts.
Then in 2020, Mrs Orech’s efforts to stop the take-over of her family home suffered a setback when the Court of Appeal dismissed her application. Ms Orech died last year, before the appeal was disposed of.
The family is now even more shocked to see that on November 22, 2022, the identical land title was transferred into other names notwithstanding the ongoing legal dispute.
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