Africa-Press – Uganda. Leaders in Masindi District are puzzled after finding out that the land they had set aside for construction of the Bunyoro University Masindi campus belongs to an alcohol distilling company.
In February 2023, the Masindi Council passed a resolution allowing the allocation of 52.7 hectares of land at Kayanja Village to Bunyoro University following a report by the district’s production committee.
In a twist of events, Masindi District chairperson Cosmas Byaruhanga now says the Council will have to pass another resolution reallocating at least 100 acres of the Kihonda Agricultural land for establishment of the public university.
This emerged after the land title at Kayanja Village was found to be in the names of Magalies Distillers Uganda Limited.
“My office later understood with proof that, on August 21, 2007, the Lands ministry permanent secretary wrote to the then Masindi District lands officer (Late James Mugoya) advising him to initiate the process of issuing a land title to the company in line with the promotion of industrialized production in the country,” Byaruhanga said on Saturday.
According to Byaruhanga, “the only way forward is to go back to Council and pass the provision of 100 acres of Kihonda land for the construction of the university.
However, Kamurasi Primary Teacher’s College governing council chairperson Phenehance Kyotasobora told Monitor that they filed a case challenge at Masindi High Court questioning how Magalies Distillers acquired the land which formerly belonged to the learning institution.
“We are in court to reclaim our land from them. So, the district had no mandate to give away the land without asking the board of our school on the status of the land,” Kyotasobora said.
Additionally, Masindi Municipal Mayor Ronald Kyomuhendo claimed that the land title issued to Magalies Distillers is fake because there is no known rightful owner of the company.
“We hear he is called Brown from South Africa but he has not come out. We even don’t know where he is,” Kyomuhendo said.
On Saturday, Kyomuhendo revealed that processes of cancelling the land title are underway to pave way for the construction of the university on the same land.
“We want the construction of Bunyoro University at Kayanja Village which is near town as compared to Kihonda land which is very far from town,” he noted.
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