Ex-presidential candidate Nancy Kalembe, URA official fight over land
A bitter row over a piece of land has erupted between former presidential candidate Nancy Kalembe and the URA commissioner of tax investigations, Mr Mathew Mugabi.
The row originates from a 2016 land sale by a real estate dealer to Mr Mugabi, Mr Kennedy Abubaker, Mr Ernest Ssenabulya, Mr Gerald Isingoma, and Mr Peter Kiwanuka.
The land dealer, Mr Abubaker Teddi, sold the entire land at Shs630 million after sub-dividing it into nine plots, with each plot sold at Shs70m. The land is on Block 272 in Kitiko-Mutungo, Wakiso District.
Records show that the land was initially owned by Magadalene Nabazizi Kalibala who allegedly sold it to Teddi. However, one of Nabaziza’s sons reportedly sold the same land to Mr Andrew Wanyaka, the former husband of Ms Kalembe. Mr Wanyaka donated the land to Ms Kalembe.
“I still have my interests on the land. I have never been compensated and whoever wants to occupy the land does it illegally,” Ms Kalembe says.
Last week Kalembe ran to the Land Division of the High Court in Kampala where she obtained an interim order, stopping any activity on the contested land.
Commissioner Mugabi declined to comment when contacted, saying the matter is in court.
Claimant
His co-accused, Mr Peter Kiwanuka, said he bought two plots of the contested land and other three were purchased by a group, Termites Sacco, to which he subscribes.
“Before we bought the land, we undertook due diligence. The land was not encumbered. By the time we paid, the land had long been demarcated. I think Ms Kalembe, because she was a presidential candidate, wants to use the position to get land where she doesn’t have it,” Mr Kiwanuka said at the weekend.
He said as buyers, they discovered that the person who claimed to be the kibanja holder was one Mbonna and was compensated, and left the area.
“We don’t know how Ms Kalembe surfaces in this. She doesn’t have any legal right to prove her ownership. She is running from one media house to the other, maligning people and looking for sympathy,” Mr Kiwanuka said.
On May 7, Justice Flavia Nabakooza of the Civil Division of the High Court issued an injunctive order, stopping the five people accused by Ms Kalembe from undertaking any developments on the contentious land.
But the officer-in-charge of Mutungo Police Post, Mr Deo Biryomugisho, said after getting the court order, Ms Kalembe immediately started putting up structures on the land.
Mr Kiwanuka said he had ordered his lawyers to file a case of contempt of court against the former presidential candidate.
“When Ms Kalembe got the court order, she started to build day and night. We complained to the judge and we got another order,” he said.
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