By Barbara Among

A tribunal to handle tenancy disputes and complaints in the Nakawa-Nagura housing estates project has been constituted and will begin hearing cases on Wednesday next week.

“We are hereby calling upon bonafide sitting tenants that have any disputes to come and present their views to the tribunal for consideration,” read a public notice.

The tribunal, which starts work on September 15, will run for one month at Naguru Community Centre.

The Government in July issued a timetable indicating that redevelopment work at the two estates was to start in August. The tenants were expected to vacate the area by the end of August to pave way for redevelopment.

The project’s spokesperson, Elizabeth Kalema, said the delay was due to the ongoing National Resistance Movement primaries.

The project is now behind schedule by two months.

The display of the tenants list is also expected to start next week. The Government will, at the end of the exercise, issue a memorandum of understanding to the tenants, after which they are expected to vacate the estates.

The land will then be handed over to Opec Prime Properties Ltd, the developer.

The Government in 2007 signed a contract with Opec to re-develop the 138 acres of land into a modern satellite town at $300m. This included the construction of low-cost houses for the resettlement of the 1,745 tenants.

Simon Barongo, the chairperson of the tenants association, said the residents were waiting for the resettlement package that was promised by the Government.

Meanwhile, the Government is yet to get land to relocate the small developers who acquired land in the estate during the stand-off between the tenants and the Government over the redevelopment.

These include tile dealers CTM, former footballer William Nkemba, the National Library of Uganda, House of Dawda and the Libyan Cultural Centre.

The initial plan was to relocate the developers to the land in Nsambya belonging to the Uganda Railways.

However, the finance ministry allocated 20 acres out of the required 40 acres to the local government ministry.