MBARARA – Mbarara City is engaged in a series of disagreements over possession of the property that originally belonged to Mbarara District Local Government.
According to Didas Tabaro, the current Chairman of Mbarara district, the fight started early July 2020 after the official elevation of Mbarara Municipality to a City status.
He says at first, City Councilors passed a resolution relocating the district leadership from the district administrative block currently gazzeted within the city boundaries.
This sparked a lot of clashes between the two administrative units which forced the Ministry of Local Government to intervene.
However, Rapheal Magyezi, the current Minister of Local Government, advised the City leadership to give ample time for the district to complete their administrative block in Bwizibwera, Kashari sub-county.
During a City Council meeting on Tuesday, Byansi Muhammad, a City Councilor representing Kakoba division felt disappointed with the district leadership for allocating 1.5 acres of land that currently belongs to the city to the Judiciary to construct the regional court of appeal in Mbarara.
“The district no longer has authority over the city land but I wonder how they gave part of our land to the construction of a regional court of appeal. They gave another part of the same piece of land to one only identified as Mugumya, so if we keep quiet that land will be grabbed,” he reported.
Muhammad says, allocating the city land to the judiciary without notifying the city leadership, undermines their powers that could result into loss of the city property which include land among other properties.
“We need to join hands to protect city land from land grabbers. We should not allow the district leadership to play around with our land,” he said.
In response, Bonny Tashobya, the Speaker of Mbarara City says, the city has already allocated 1 acre of land for the construction of a court of appeal in the Kakiika division near Kyamugorani government prisons.
“On the issue of who to allocate land to, we don’t want to listen to it because we want the regional court of appeal to come to Mbarara city authorities. More so, we are writing to the district that they no longer have a right to allocate the city land because it’s now a city,” Tashobya said.
“We have decided to excuse ourselves from these issues of the LCV Chairman, the Mayor and the Speaker because we should not bring confusion in our development. Ours is to see to it that the regional court of appeal comes to Mbarara City so that people from Rukungiri, and other neighboring districts come to Mbarara,” he added.
Tashobya warned the district leadership to desist from allocating city land without permission from the city land board.
“We had put a temporary injunction until we have our own land board but I hear that they are now using the district land board that existed before to allocate our land, who gave them the minutes?” he asked.
“But now that we have a fully constituted city land board, we need you to take on this matter and investigate it deeply. You should not issue minutes as a land board to give out illegally allocated land by the district because others are pretending that they are from the Inspector General of Government (IGG) office and National Drug Authority (NDA) yet they are not but want to grab our land. So, the Resident City Commissioner (RCC) also needs to interest himself with this matter,” Tashobya further warned.
He advised the district LC V Council to only allocate land gazzeted in the district not in the city boundaries.
“If they have what to offer, they should give them from Bwizibwera but our land is still intact and the town clerk must take note,” he said.
Tashobya further threatened to evict the district leadership from the city land after it started to grab their land.
“If they start stealing government land, then we shall not hesitate to push them out of the city premises because we had given them grace period of six months to prepare and shift to their new district headquarters in Bwizibwera,” he emphasized.
Ronald Taremwa, the City Finance Chairman representing Mbarara City North B, asked the City Councilors to anonymously support the idea of petitioning the district to the Ministry of Local Government for allocating land which belongs to the city.
“I would like the council to resolve to notify Uganda Land Commission, the Attorney General’s Office, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and the Minister about the actions of Mbarara District Local Government. Directing the Chairperson of Mbarara City Land Board is actually inconsequential because that land is controlled by Uganda Land Commission not the city land board,” says Taremwa.
When asked about the matter, Eunice Asiimwe, Councilor representing People With Disabilities (PWD’s) in Mbarara City said, it does not matter where the court of appeal premises will be but only concerned with reduction of case backlogs in Mbarara and elsewhere.
“For us, we are happy to see that this will decrease the number of cases piled at Kampala Court of Appeal headquarters. Ours is service delivery and we are happy that our people will no longer be traveling to Kampala for appeals,” says Asiimwe.
Deputy Chief Justice, Richard Buteera said, starting this financial year, the Judiciary will construct eight Courts of Appeal divisions across the country to ease administration of justice.
“It was decided that probably for this financial year, we have the funds to construct Mbarara and Gulu Courts of Appeal. I am happy that the land is available and the procedures are not a problem,” he said.
Buteera says, the current judicial officers are overwhelmed with workload which has delayed justice because of a limited number of judicial officers countrywide.
He was speaking at the opening of the Court of Appeal criminal session at Mbarara High Court Circuit on Monday where 36 cases will be heard in one week.
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