The management of St Charles Lwanga Catholic Parish on Tuesday demolished the perimeter wall of Ntinda Primary School on orders of top government officials.

The church has been seeking access to the school’s playground as a parking for its parishioners during Sunday service.

Ntinda Primary School is among the 79 public primary schools across the city managed by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) on behalf of government.
However, the demolition has resurrected the feud between the Church and the school’s management committee.

On Tuesday, the KCCA deputy executive director, Mr David Ssali Luyimbazi, wrote to the chairperson of the school management committee, Mr Allan Tsentumbwe, directing him to break the wall fence to create access for the church.

Mr Luyimbazi said the church would meet the costs of constructing the access gate restoring the adjoining wall connections to the access structure.
He also said the Church and school management committee would enter into a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will govern the sharing of the playground.

“This is, therefore, to direct you to immediately allow the management of St Charles Lwanga Catholic Church to construct the required access through the school wall fence so that the parishioners can use the school playground  as a parking facility. The need for the MoU shouldn’t stop the construction of the gate/access from progressing,” he wrote.

Mr Luyimbazi was working on the orders of a government official who had convened a meeting earlier that day.
The meeting was also attended by the State Minister for Kampala, Mr Kyofatogabye Kabuye, KCCA’s director of education and technical services, Ms Juliet Namuddu Nambi, Msgr Charles Kasibante, and the Ibanda North MP, Mr Xavier Kyoma.

The school management has been  constructing a perimeter wall since June to protect  the institution from land grabbers.
Mr Tsentumbwe yesterday accused the [government official] of making orders for demolition of the school’s perimeter wall without engaging management of the school.

He alleged that St Charles Lwanga Catholic Parish has previously attempted to take over the school in vain, adding that the priest is now using the powerful people in government to forcefully take part of the land.

“The [government official] should have followed the law instead of taking sides while handling this matter. Now that the Church has gained access to the playground, they could claim its ownership because even where the church currently sits used to be the school garden,’’ Mr Tsentumbwe  said.

He said they have started the process of appealing against the demolition.
In 2015, the Church got a five-year lease (2015-2021) on the same playground to modernise it. However, KCCA didn’t approve the plan  due to land wrangles.

CHURCH SPEAKS OUT

The parish priest, the Rev Fr Edward Muwanga, yesterday denied accusations that the church wants to grab the land.
Fr Muwanga said the decision to allow the parishioners use the play ground as parking had been agreed on by both parties but some individuals allegedly protested the move, which forced the church to engage the government.

“The school needs the church and vice versa and both facilities are serving the communities of Ntinda. Therefore, there is no need to build barriers. We are just using the playground as parking and I would like to assure the school that our intentions are not to grab the land. How do we grab the same land whose titles we already surrendered? Both institutions need to coexist and there shouldn’t be cause for alarm,” Fr Muwanga said.