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Minister to be held accountable for abuse of office over Naguru-Nakawa land

Parliament has adopted a report by the Ad hoc Committee on the Naguru-Nakawa land which holds current and former ministers as well as the Uganda Land Commission liable for fraudulent land dealings.

Persis Princess Namuganza is the State Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development in the Cabinet of Uganda. She was appointed to that position on June 6 2016.

The report presented by the Committee chairperson, Dan Kimosho, reveals that the Minister for Lands, Persis Namuganza, directed the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) to allocate land to entities according to a non-existent presidential directive.

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Hon. Persis Namuganza be held accountable for abuse of office for misleading the ULC into allocation of land to individuals and entities following presidential directives which were non-existent,” Kimosho said.

The said land is about 142 acres and was withdrawn from Opec Prime Properties Ltd which had been allocated the land in 2007 to develop a satellite city.

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Pursuant to this plan, there was to be construction of 1,747 residential units for purchase by the registered tenants of the Nakawa-Naguru Housing Estate, who were given first priority. The project was expected to be complete in 10 years.

The report implicates former Deputy Attorney, Mwesigwa Rukutana, then Lands Minister, Betty Amongi and former ULC chairperson, Baguma Isoke, for influence peddling and portraying government in a poor light.

This resulted in government paying shs50 million as the ministers were found guilty of contempt of court. The monies that were ordered by court to be paid by ministers but was paid by government should be recovered from them,” the report partly reads.

The report also faults ULC for bypassing the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act by publicising the planned land allocations using brokers and notices on its premises.

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“Most allocatees informed the committee that they got information about the availability of land at Naguru estate through brokers. ULC said that following the visit of then Minister of Lands Betty Kamya and the technical team, they had an influx of applications. In order to handle the applications, they issued a notice detailing the requirements which the applicants should submit alongside their applications,” said Kimosho.

The committee noted that the commission never put out an advert for the available public land which he said enshrouded the process in seemingly underhand methods.

MPs said that all those involved in this saga be censured as a competent team be instituted to save more government land in the process.

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“Let this Parliament at its peak be remembered for censuring those who are responsible and that is the only way we can help the president and the public have the right officers,” said Robert Migadde, Buvuma islands County MP.

The Igara County West MP, Mbwatekamwa Gafa, said he was unpleasantly surprised that a cabinet minister could stoop to such dealings.

“Namuganza has a responsibility and she must tell this House how this happened. People should be held responsible including some commissioners,” said Mbwatekamwa.

However, Namuganza said she met the president over the matter in 2020 in the presence of the commission, even though the committee could not find evidence of the presidential directive she claimed existed when allocating the land.

“On 24 January 2020, I wrote a letter requesting for allocation of 10 acres of land to construct a modern children’s hospital and dialysis centre,” said Namuganza.

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“The executive will take up the matter and I think after two months, whoever will be found guilty, action will be taken against that person,” said the Third Deputy Prime Minister, Rukia Nakadama.

She said that government would not allow future occurrences of the same.

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