Events from last Wednesday’s sitting of the commission of inquiry into land matters have exposed a suspected racket involving government officials and a private citizen to siphon off billions in disregard of court process, writes BAKER BATTE LULE.

At the centre of this saga is a chunk of land measuring one square mile in Mutungo, Kampala whose ownership is being contested in court between beneficiaries of the estate of former Buganda king/first president of Uganda, Sir Edward Mutesa II, and Dr Muhamed Buwule Kasasa.

The standoff dates back to 2002 but government, through parliament, was on the verge of advancing Shs 7 billion to Kasasa until Judge Catherine Bamugemereire, the land commission chairperson, stepped in.

But before the commission’s intervention, Kasasa had already received Shs 2.4 billion. The Shs 7bn is purported accumulated interest for delayed payment.

However, the commission’s letter dated June 26 addressed to Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi observed that:

“The commission has received information that the aforesaid land is the subject of compensation by the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) using the Land Fund, where so far Shs 2.4bn has been paid, and a further Shs 7bn is due for payment today.”

Signed by Dr Douglas Singiza, the commission’s secretary, it said: “The purpose of this letter is to halt any further payments for the above-mentioned land as the commission proceeds with investigation into the matter.”

How it started

According to court documents seen by The Observer, the land on Block 237 was registered in 1946 in the names of Sir Edward Mutesa II. Sources familiar with the case told this newspaper that government’s abolition of kingdoms in 1966 created loopholes in the land tenure system that saw several kingdom properties and land belonging to the former Kabaka go to the state or individuals.

Documents from the ministry of Lands show that the said land was, therefore, sold on June 13, 1968 by Nnalinnya Victoria Mpologoma, a sister of Mutesa II. At the time, Mutesa II was in exile in Britain.

She sold it to Paul Kintu, who sold it five months later to Lake View Properties Ltd, a company owned by then chief justice Ben Kiwanuka, Bank of Uganda governor Joseph Mubiru, Lawrence Sebalu and a Ms Kabenge.

Lake View Properties later mortgaged the title with Barclays bank before Kasasa bought it in 1979 and later subdivided it into several plots.

It was in 2003 that administrators of Mutesa II’s estate lodged a suit in the High court against Kasasa and the Attorney General, stopping any dealings on the said land. Princess Dorothy Nassolo and Prince David Wasajja went ahead to place caveats on the various plots.

Enter ULC

However, that didn’t stop government, through ULC, from entering into agreement with Kasasa to buy five plots on the land for Shs 2.4bn. In 2006, government started paying installments of and by November 2007, Kasasa had received Shs 1.1 billion.

In February 2008, ULC officials sought to clear the remaining balance but the permanent secretary of the ministry of Lands advised against any further payment in respect of the court case.

Surprisingly, ULC still went on to enter a sale agreement with Kasasa on September 12, 2008 in spite of fresh warnings from lawyers representing Mutesa II’s estate. The agreement states that the sale was subject to the land being free from any encumbrances.

Officials at ULC purportedly claimed to have sought clearance from the solicitor general on September 2, 2008. But another letter dated September 29, 2008 from the solicitor general raised queries in regard to the matter being before court. 

On November 19, 2009, the permanent secretary yet again questioned the payment of the balance after finding out that it is caveated, but four days later, government paid Kasasa Shs 1.3bn as a final installment.

Collusion?

In a new twist on August 23, 2010, the solicitor general wrote to ULC, advising it to pay interest to Kasasa in respect to the same land.

And so, on October 6 that year, Kasasa demanded Shs 8.8bn as outstanding balance. By coincidence, the ULC secretary wrote to Keith Muhakanizi requesting that Kasasa be paid the monies.

Yet again, on October 13 when Kasasa delivered the letter to ULC, the commission secretary also demanded his pay from Muhakanizi that very day.

Two years later on January 9, 2012, Prince Wasajja wrote to the Attorney general to complain about a suspected conspiracy between Kasasa and some public officials to defraud government. Copied in was parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) chairperson, Inspectorate of Government and registrar of the High court. Attempts were made to remove the caveats but Justice Musalu Musene dismissed Kasasa’s application.

With the court halting payments until the case is disposed of, Kasasa’s Shs 7bn claim seemed to have fallen through until May 4 when it was resurrected.

Jane Kibirige, the clerk to parliament, wrote to Muhakanizi to bring to his attention resolutions adopted by parliament.  Among them was to pay Kasasa Shs 7bn as part of the Shs 19bn earmarked for the ministry of Lands.

But just before the payment could be executed, Muzamil Kibeedi, the lawyer representing the Mutesa II estate, got wind of the deal and wrote to Muhakanizi, Solicitor General Francis Atoke and the Lands ministry permanent secretary to stop the transaction.

He also copied in Angeline Osegge, the PAC chairperson as well as the auditor general and IG. Still, nothing was done until the matter was brought before Bamugemereire’s commission, which acted swiftly to halt the transaction. At the same time, the commission also stopped another Shs 6bn payment to American Procurement Company (Amproc) through the same ministry.

An MP who preferred anonymity but sits on PAC intimated told The Observer that both payments were smuggled in.

“We never discussed them during our deliberations and it also came as a shock that the institution of parliament could approve the payments without due diligence,” he said.

Another PAC member said the issue of encumbrances was never brought to its attention. “If we knew both deals were fishy, we wouldn’t have gone ahead to approve the payments,” she said.

What next?

The commission of inquiry is set to summon all concerned parties as part of their investigations.

This week Atoke said he needs more time to study the matter before responding.

Efforts to reach Prince Wasajja or Princess Nassolo for comment were futile as their known numbers went unanswered, but Kibeedi welcomed Bamugemereire’s decision.

“It is clear from the onset that there are so many irregularities yet government officials always went ahead to approve them,” he said. “I will not say much since the matter is still before court but we shall pursue it to its conclusion.”