Africa-Press – Uganda. Court has dismissed five cases that were filed separately, challenging the redevelopment of Nakivubo Stadium.
The cases were filed against Ham Enterprises Limited, businessman Hamis Kiggundu and the board of trustees of Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium Trust between 2013 and 2017.
High Court judge Musa Ssekaana declared that all the cases were filed based on illegalities and that they did have a reasonable cause of action.
The judge also held that the cases are barred in law because they were since determined.
“I agree with the applicants’ submission that the claims of the existence of a market without a licence presume that there were illegal and unlicensed activities on the suit land, which cannot form a basis of a valid and tenable cause of action,” the judge reasoned.
The decision followed an application in which Ham Enterprises Limited, its proprietor and the board of trustees of Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium Trust challenged the competence of the six cases.
The six cases were filed by Mr Steven Katende and two others; Mr Jimmy Mukwaya and 245 others; Mr Moses Lugya and 85 others; Mr Ezra Kabeera and four others; and Mr Bernard Kakande, Mr Ahmed Mbidde and seven others.
In the application, the businessman asked the court to declare that the cases were formed based on illegalities.
The judge observed that one of the cases filed in 2019 in regard to the leases created out of the registered free hold Nakivubo land are unlawful and invalid, thus hearing a similar case would amount to holding a case already determined.
Justification
The judge also said the claims raised in the cases filed in 2013 and 2017 did not have merit because the issues raised therein have since been determined by the same court.
Court records show that the complaints in the six cases had sued Ham Enterprises for evicting them from Nakivubo Park Yard Market without relocating them to another market facility.
But the court observed that whereas the complaints alleged that the businessman had a duty to relocate them, the pleading did not provide anything to form a basis for their claim.
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