COURT | LAND | KICONCO 

KAMPALA - The High Court has thrown out a land case filed by businessman Medard Kiconco against an Indian investor.

The100-acre piece of land is comprised on FRV 3 Folio 15 Busiro Block 408 Plot 3 land at Sisa, Waksio district.

The land is currently being occupied by Ladha Kassam and Company. The case had been ruled in 2019 in favour of the company, but three people, through Kiconco, who claim interest in the land, went back to court seeking to overturn the verdict, saying they were never party to the case.

The three applicants are Margaret Zalwango, John Lumasi and Eddy Kimera, the administrators of the estate of the late Festo Banja.

Justice Esta Nambayo, however, dismissed the application, saying it was improperly filed before the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala.

“I do not think I will be able to hear the case because it is incompetent before this court,”  she said.

The application was dismissed in the presence of Peter Allan Musoke and Marzuq Swabur, the lawyers representing the company,  and Joel Aijuka and Robert Matovu, who represented the applicants.

Also present in court was Kiconco, as well as Multaza Kassam and Murtaza Kassam, the company directors. The judge then sent Kiconco and three other people back to the Land Division of the High Court to hear a wrangle involving them and an Indian investor.

Prior to the dismissal of their application, counsel Musoke informed the judge that the applicants had been before Justices Michael Elubu of the Civil Court and John Eudes Keitirima of the Land Court, but failed to secure an order stopping the company from dealing with the land.

He said the order that the applicants seek to contest after three years, has already been affected by the Commissioner Land Registration (CLR).

“The company has since diversified its interest on the land to other parties,” Musoke disclosed.

In response, Aijuka said the beneficiaries of the land (applicants) intend to use it for modern commercial farming. The court heard that the company had started constructing on the land.

Court ruling

On November 11, 2019, Justice Lydia Mugambe ruled that the land lies within freehold tenure and not mailo tenure. She declared that the company is registered as proprietor of the land presently registered as freehold.

The company had sued the CRL. Mugambe also ruled that CLR’s act of creating and imposing mailo tenure certificates of title on the land at Sisa is illegal, irrational and ultra vires the powers of its office.

“The neglect, failure and or refusal by the CLR to cancel all such created and imposed mailo certificates of title on the area is illegal and irrational,”  she ruled.

The judge, therefore, issued an order, compelling the CLR,  to cancel all mailo certificates of title that have been created on the land at Sisa. She also blocked CLR from creating mailo certificates of title.

Kiconco says no

In rebuttal, Kiconco swore an affidavit, stating that the order erroneously confirmed the tenure of the land as freehold, cancelling the subsequent mailo titles created.

The applicants, therefore, wanted to set aside the execution of the orders of Justice Mugambe, pending the determination of their application.

They were also seeking orders restraining the respondent’s agents, assignees, attorneys, licensees and successors from constructing, grading, excavating, subdividing and transferring the disputed land at Sisa, pending conclusion of the case.

In his affidavit, Kiconco argued that the company and  Commissioner Land Registration, acting with fraud and collusion, stealthily secured the order, which affected the rights and interests of the applicants.

He contended that Festo Banja acquired the title to the land comprised on Mailo Register Vol.46 Folio 23 before it was registered as block 408, plot 3, Busiro, land at Sisa in 1915.