Africa-Press – Uganda. Despite an interim court order halting any activity on the contested Bat Valley land in the city centre, Daily Monitor can reveal that it has since been transferred to a new investor.
Records from the Lands ministry we have obtained indicate that the land located at Plot 2 Semiliki Walk Road near Kisekka market has since been transferred to Buko Minerals and Oil. The process was completed on September 2 by one Ivan Byaruhanga
The land in contention originally belonged to Ms H. Damani, who claims to still have a running lease of four years with Kampala District Land Board. Two Sundays ago, unknown people encircled the land with iron sheets, claiming ownership. It later emerged that Mr Byaruhanga was allegedly laying claim to the land.
It is against this background that Ms Damani rushed to Kampala High Court to secure an interim order, stopping any activity on the contested land until the ownership dispute was resolved. In the application, she sued Kampala District Land Board, the commissioner for Land Registration and Mr Byaruhanga. “There should be no further development or additions on the land by any of the parties,” the interim order, issued last Friday by the Assistant Registrar of the Land Division of the High Court in Kampala, Mr Simon Kintu Zirintusa, read in part.
The interim order also added that “the status quo on the suit land as it is today should be maintained.”
This newspaper understands that Mr Byaruhanga transferred the land to Buko Minerals and Oil a day after the court summoned the affected parties. Mr Denis Obbo, the spokesperson of the Lands ministry, told Daily Monitor yesterday that “the lawyers of Damani family should have extracted [the interim order] immediately and served it on the concerned parties.”
He further added that “I am not sure whether this was done or not though court orders must be respected.”
Mr Moses Ssekito, a registrar at KCCA, also said he was not aware of the land transfer.
Last week, Mr David Balondemu, the chairperson of Kampala District Land Board, confirmed having given the land in question to Mr Byaruhanga on grounds that the Damani family had failed to develop the land for the last about 21 years and yet “city land is not for mere holding.”
He added that in the time the Damanis have owned the land, only a washing bay has been erected on the prime land.
Mr Balondemu also warned that the board is going after all undeveloped plots of land in the city with leases nearing expiry. In her defence, Ms Damani said there was a house foundation on the disputed land whose construction process of a hotel had been stalled by failure to secure a bank loan.
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