The fight for St Balikuddembe Market, commonly known as Owino, has taken a new twist after MPs joined the battle to keep the market in the hands of more than 500,000 vendors.

During the House session on July 14, Rukiga County MP Roland Ndyomugyenyi tabled documents detailing the genesis of the conflict between vendor groups and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

The documents detail the vendors’ attempts under Space and Lock-ups Shop Owners Association (SSLOA), to get their building plans approved by KCCA, and the deliberate frustration by the city’s prefect.

According to the documents, KCCA had for many years rejected any attempt by the traders to own and develop the market, until they sought the help of President Yoweri Museveni in 2014, who then ordered for the land to be leased to them (vendors). The vendors were given the title for 8.5 acres on which the market sits.

Although they (vendors) later obtained a 99-year lease on the land, KCCA refused to approve the building plans for the construction of a modern market, a condition contained in the lease offer to the vendors.

“For seven years, the vendors have been seeking approval from KCCA in vain, yet recently I saw a purported letter from the President indicating that the vendors had failed to fulfil this condition, and must as such lose their lease on the land,” Ndyomugyenyi told Parliament.

MPs during plenary last year. MP Rolland Ndyomugyenyi tabled documents detailing the genesis of the market conflict

The President, in a letter dated July 4, 2022, directed the lands ministry together with KCCA to repossess the land title belonging to Owino market.

In the letter, the President sought to end the endless internal wrangles among rival vendor factions by reverting ownership of the market to the Government.

Museveni’s attempt to settle the Owino wrangles started in 2019 when he instituted a committee to investigate the source of wrangles, the outcome of which was to be reported to Cabinet.

After reporting to Cabinet, the committee was directed to reconcile the warring factions in order to facilitate the market’s development, failure of which would force the Government to take over the market.

Sources privy to the committee report said reconciliation of the warring market factions failed, prompting the Government to take over the market.

In his letter, Museveni said the market should serve as a nursery for low-income businesses, which after a certain level of growth should move to a bigger scale.

He argued that leasing the market to a group of owners was wrong, as it jeopardises the opportunity for future generations to also operate there freely.

In his submission, Ndyomugyenyi said the President was not told the truth upon which to base his directive. He said the directive would cause losses to the Government in court.

He added that before the vendors obtained the lease, the Attorney General was directed by the President to guide them on the process. The Attorney General said all procedures had been followed.

“KCCA verified and updated the vendors’ register, as directed by the President, and the list of verified vendors was provided. After that, the market was leased to SSLOA, a limited company owned by all vendors,” Ndyomugyenyi said.

He said KCCA, which was meant to facilitate the vendors’ plans, was the one sabotaging them by deferring the approval of their building plan.

Ndyomugyenyi asked the Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, to ask the Attorney General to give his opinion on the matter, to save the Government from losing billions of shillings in litigation.

“Balondemu, who gave the information to the President should be investigated on what interest he has in causing conflict among Owino traders,” Ndyomugyenyi prayed. David Balondemu is the Kampala District Land Board chairperson.

In response, lands minister Judith Nabakooba said the land in question is under Kampala District Land Board.

She, however, said documents in her possession indicate the lease had conditions which the vendors had failed to fulfil.

“The land board has been complaining that I am failing the process of revoking the lease. They even put a big poster at the market saying they are repossessing the land,” Nabakooba said.

Tayebwa said: “This is the situation. KCCA vehemently refused and rejected any attempt by the traders to develop the market. When they did that, the traders found their way and the President ordered that they get their land title.

“The title had conditions that they develop the land within 10 years. In these 10 years, they were supposed to go back to the same KCCA for the approval of the plan. What KCCA did was to frustrate the approval of the plan. After frustrating them for seven years, the same KCCA now says the vendors have not fulfilled terms of the lease. Can’t you smell something?” he asked.

Tayebwa said it is possible that the President was ill-advised on the matter, and pledged to personally pass on information to help him in decision making.

“Whatever decision he comes up with, we shall have done our job. I will definitely send him the information,” he said. The land had been initially under the control of the defunct Kampala City Council (KCC) until 1995, when vendors took over the management.

In October 2002, KCC dissolved the vendors’ management and handed over the market to Victoria International Trading Company, owned by businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba.

In 2009, Museveni ordered that the land on which the market sits be leased to the vendors, and asked the Attorney General to guide them. The lease was obtained at a premium of sh4b and annual ground rent sh200m.

Various individuals representing splinter groups of market vendors contested the formation of SSLOA in court, arguing that it had left out the majority of the vendors. However, the rival groups later entered a consent judgement to incorporate all vendors.

On May 4, 2010, the KCC town clerk wrote a letter to dfcu Bank stating that SSLOA had complied with all terms of the lease offer.

The then local government minister also wrote to the bank on July 20, 2010, confirming his ministry and the Attorney General had reconciled all the market vendors under SSLOA.

On the basis of the ministers’ assurance in August 2010, SSLOA was granted a loan of sh4.8b by dfcu Bank.

On September 4, 2015, SSLOA entered a deal with a foreign company — KETZA International, which later merged with SSETZA Holdings to reconstruct the market.

When SSLOA applied for a loan from Swiss Charge in Zambia to modernise the market, it was allegedly blocked by a State House lawyer, Sandra Ndyomugyenyi.

In 2019, the vendors had hatched another $350m (sh1.1 trillion) plan for the development of the 8.5-acre piece of land, supported by a loan facility from development partners.

At the time, the vendors also acquired 3.5 acres where they were to temporarily relocate during the redevelopment period.

Former SSLOA executive director Godfrey Kayongo Nkajja said the traders deposited the 3.5 acre title with dfcu Bank to acquire sh4.5b loan, which was used to pay KCC to secure the 99-year lease.

“In the process, we discovered the title was not in the custody of KCC, but the Kampala District Land Board. We had to mobilise more money to pay the board,” Kayongo said.

He said because the approvals from KCCA dragged on for long, the vendors ended up defaulting on their loan payment and dfcu Bank sold part of their land to clear the debt.

Kayongo said the vendors had over the years got multiple investors to redevelop the market and recover their money after an agreed period, but most were frustrated by KCCA, which claimed the vendors had no capacity to execute such a big project.

Sources told Business Vision that the recent assault on SSLOA could be emanating from the 2020 decision by KCCA to flag the redevelopment of the market, into a modern multi-storied complex.

In May 2020, then acting KCCA executive director Andrew Kittaka is said to have given Kayongo’s SSLOA the green light to redevelop the market, a matter that was contested by a rival faction in the market led by Susan Kushaba, an National Resistance Movement (NRM) mobiliser.

The source said Kushaba accused Kittaka of conniving with Kayongo to give away the market land to people with selfish motives.

They said the move was stopped by President Museveni, after the Kushaba faction petitioned him. The President ordered for the election of new market leaders and government repossession of all markets and abattoirs in Kampala.

Sources further said the President, in his letter to the Kampala minister, said the vendors were being exploited by cliques of leaders who had hijacked the association, and ordered their immediate removal.

“The President was angry that SSLOA was registered as a private company, owned by the association leaders, instead of an association for all vendors,” the source said.

YEMENI DEVELOPER

In March 2022, a Yemeni businessman threatened the Government with a $860m

(sh3.225 trillion) claim as compensation for loss of business in the Owino market deal.

The Yemeni businessman petitioned the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which gave the Government 90 days from March to respond.

According to the claim, Abdulmajeed Qasem Othman Ahmed had entered a memorandum of understanding with SSLOA, on terms that he would offer a loan amounting to $352,794,400 to the association for the redevelopment of the market.

The memorandum of understanding was signed in January, where the investor represented his two companies, Al-Ameri Engineering Trading and Contracting Company and Al-Ameri Intel Company East Africa Constructions.

Documents seen by Business Vision indicate that under the arrangement, the Yemeni investor was to recover his money over a 15- year period, after charging interest of 6% per annum.

The documents also show that a loan repayment account, jointly controlled by SSLOA and Ahmed, was set up on April 30, 2020, where all payments for all project costs were to be made. All the proceeds from the sale of condominium units on the main market and the relocation (3.5 acres) site were also to be deposited into the same account.

The businessman also claims to have signed with more than 50 Ugandan companies to supply project materials and equipment.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Last week, the lands registry wrote to SSLOA notifying them that their lease had since been cancelled, since they had refused to take back the title deeds in seven days as earlier instructed.

A new lease of 99 years was also issued to KCCA, meaning that legal custody for the market land had changed hands from SSLOA to KCCA.

However, this came on the back of the traders’ petition filed in court on July 22.

Court presided by Justice Musa Ssekaana in turn issued an interim order stopping the return of the duplicate certificate of title to the registrar of titles for cancellation until the main application for the interim civil application is heard and determined.

The lawyers representing SSLOA said they would protest the lease transfer to KCCA in court, and also push for the punishment of lands officials for contempt of court.

“We have agreed to go back and inform court that officials at the lands registry have disobeyed an interim order from court stopping the transfer of the tiles until the main application is heard and determined,” SSLOA’s lead counsel, Fred Ssejinja Kalema, said.

He said at the moment, the lease transfer to KCCA is of no effect, since court had already issued an interim order, following the miscellaneous application no. 0388 of 2022, long before the transfer to KCCA was made.

KCCA RESPONDS

KCCA deputy spokesperson, Robert Kalumba said KCCA did not have any hidden interests in the market while it rested under the management of SSLOA.

He also denied accusations of the city prefect frustrating the redevelopment plans of the market by SSLOA, since every time their plan was rejected, a reason was given but SSLOA never responded to the queries raised.

“The approval of construction goes through a rigorous process, and every time we have an objection, we give the reason why. Therefore, that accusation of sabotage is false,” he said.

VENDORS SPEAK

Deogracious Tebandeke, a trader, said the President’s order is confusing traders because in the past he has been vocal about the Owino issues, yet now he seems to be taking sides.

“The accuracy of his information is a concern for us, because the way he knows things is different from the way we know them,” he said.

Tebandeke said the President should find a way of getting information from a neutral source to help him make the right decision.

Another trader, Stephen Okello, said although the new leadership claims the old one was profiteering from the market, they have since increased rent.

“I was renting my stall at sh800,000 a month, but at the moment, the rent has jumped to sh2.5m, and no one cares,” he said.

Okello said although the chairperson recently told them not to pay rent, the directive is yet to take effect in the market.

Patrick Kwesi, on the other hand, said he is grateful that the President had chosen to intervene in the matter, because they are tired of the SSLOA, saying it claims to have interest in the market, yet they are defrauding people.

He said the traders prefer a market where no one pays rent, because the Government is in full charge of the market projects.

Susan Kushaba said as someone who has been fighting for the poor, she was overjoyed by the President’s directive.

“These titles should be cancelled because the lease offer was clear. They had to have developed the place in 10 years. Since they failed, the land should revert to the Government,” she said.