KCCA hands tied over Naguru-Shimoni development delays

Kampala Capital City Authority - KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi says her Authority is concerned over delays in completion of the much anticipated Nakawa-Naguru and Shimoni projects.

The Nakawa-Naguru Project involves the planned redevelopment of the Naguru-Nakawa Housing Estate into an ultra-modern satellite town within the Capital City of Kampala. The houses covering 66 hectares of land were to be constructed under a Public-Private Partnership between government and a private developer- Opec Prime Properties.

The other project was the planned construction of a modern complex at the former Shimoni Primary School land in Kampala. Although, the school was hurriedly demolished ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2007, the project remains incomplete.

Musisi and her team acknowledged before the Lands Inquiry Commission that the two projects are behind the schedule. She however said KCCA has no powers to order investors to return the land which was allocated to them close to ten years ago.

Musisi says the Authority is powerless over the deals because Uganda Land Commission then offered the project developer a 99-year lease for the property.

Musisi says there are a lot of aspects which the developer is yet to fulfill with KCCA but the Authority is not able to reenter the land because it was leased by Uganda Land Commission. She says OPEC prime Properties submitted aspects of the project which KCCA approved but it has not yet submitted its master plan almost ten years since it entered the project.

Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, the chairperson of the probe commission asked whether KCCA would not take action based on factors like when the desolate buildings therein have become a hazard or a security hazard because of the over grown bush like it is now.

KCCA Director Legal Affairs, Mike Okua said choices on whether government should take over the project have to be made by government.

KCCA Director for Physical Planning, Moses Atwine told the Commission of Inquiry that the Shimoni Developer was also granted a 99-year lease. Atwine says if they had been granted the five initial years, then KCCA in circumstances that it were the controlling Authority would review the lease agreement. He says that in this case, the mandate falls back to Uganda land Commission.

The two examples are part of the many complaints that Kampala Capital City Authority has against Uganda Land Commission regarding allocation of public land in Kampala. Musisi says the Authority lost Nabagereka Primary School and other prime pieces of land in Kampala because of mistakes emanating from Uganda Land Commission.

The Uganda land Commission according to Jennifer Musisi has been involved in double allocation of plots and has turned public school land into a "bank of plots" for issuance to individuals without consulting Ministry of Education and her Authority.

-URN