KCC sold off 500 properties

By John Semakula

KAMPALA City Council sold off 475 properties in 10 years because they were not generating revenue. The properties, which included houses, land, markets, vehicles and other assets were disposed of under the Government’s divestiture programme, which began in 2001.

This led to the sell of over 50 KCC houses and flats in Kololo, Kamwokya, and Bugolobi and areas around the taxi park.

However, the sale of the properties flouted the rules and many ended up in the hands of KCC officials, their cronies and the same people who were selling them. In some cases, the revenue generated was untraceable.

Flouting procedures
According to the former mayor, Nasser Sebaggala, the sales did not have to conform to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) standards..

“At the time, there was no PPDA,” Sebaggala, fondly known as Seya, said.

The houses were sold to the highest bidder or the KCC officials who were the sitting tenants at the time. Seya says the tenants were given priority. However, some of them were the ones disposing of the assets.

“If we had followed PPDA in disposing of the properties,” Sebaggala explained, “the vendors in Owino Market would not have beaten Hassan Basajjabalaba to the tender to manage the market. Basajjabalaba was giving KCC sh145m, yet the vendors were offering sh90m, but that was possible because we flouted PPDA.”

PPDA was set up in 2003, but that did not deter KCC from selling property fraudulently. For example, PPDA requires that any property for sale should be advertised.  

With time, as many properties were being sold off, the fear that KCC would sell all its assets set in. Consequently, a proposal was made that some of the assets be made non-disposable. These included the former town clerk’s house, the mayor’s house on Mabua Road and plots of land near the new and old taxi parks.

Simon Muhumuza, KCCA’s spokesperson, said the two houses, which have become a centre of conflict lately, were non-disposable assets.

“They were spared after KCC discovered that in future it would be hard to find accommodation for the contract staff,” Muhumuza said.

However, the newly-established Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has discovered that both houses were disposed of during Sebaggala’s term. The town clerk’s house was sold to Sebaggala at sh4b, while the Mayor’s house was sold to Pearline Investment at sh3.6b. Unfortunately, the income generated from the sales cannot be traced, KCCA disclosed.    

Way forward
KCCA officials are now accusing Sebaggala and his council of disposing of the non-disposable assets.

The executive director of Kampala, Jennifer Musisi, said she would fight to retain the non-disposable assets that had been sold off. “Of course, we may not be able to recover some of those assets because their sale was officially endorsed,” she said. “But we shall try. For example, when I was appointed into this office, people asked me to prioritise the rehabilitation of taxi parks. I went to inspect them and discovered that the land around them had been sold. We can’t renovate them without that land,” Musisi said.

She said KCCA could either buy the land back or reclaim it and pay a hefty compensation, which could paralyse the authority. 

Sebaggala defends himself
Sebaggala denies knowledge of the non-disposable assets. “Whatever we sold was not making profit for KCC like the Mabua Road facility. The Ministry of Defence, which was occupying it, was not paying KCC, so the council found it wise to dispose of it.” 

Sebaggala explained that before defence took over the property, KCC was spending a lot of money to maintain the house whose tenants were littering it with human excreta. He also added that the town clerk’s house on Ssezibwa Road, from which he was evicted recently by KCCA, had become a liability to KCC.

“When council recommended its disposal, priority to purchase it went to the sitting tenant, who was me. I spent a lot of money repairing it and then I was evicted. I have gone to court. If I win the case, I will ask for damages of sh8b.” 

But Muhumuza said Sebaggala was not the sitting tenant in the house as he was not residing there. “He was using it as an office. And for the time he used it as an office, he kept drawing housing allowances from KCC,” he said. 

Sebaggala also said he had no regrets over selling off the properties. “Whenever we sold any property, we replaced it with a better facility. When we returned the Nkrumah Road KCC Hospital land to the Land Commission, we used the money to construct other hospitals in the suburbs like in Kisenyi, Naguru and Kawempe,” he said. “But Musisi wants to undo the former council’s resolutions and that will lead her and KCCA into trouble.”

The Mayor's House
In 2007, during Sebaggala’s term, former local government minister Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire asked KCC to give the house to the Ministry of Defence for national security. Sebaggala said he did so even without a memorandum of understanding, because such special arrangements between government institutions always took place.

On July 20, 2010, the council, chaired by the speaker, Shifrah Lukwago, sat at Hotel Africana and resolved to dispose off the house to Pearlline Investment because KCC was not benefiting from it. An evaluation report indicated that it was worth sh3.4b.

In April, 2011, the house was given to Pearline Investment, whose ownership is mysterious. The common talk indicates that it belongs to tycoon Francis Kakumba, but at the Registrar of Companies, it belongs to Isaac Muyanja.

However, Musisi says she still has the land tittle for the house and wonders why the title was not given to Pearline Investments. She says she also does not know who Pearline Investments is nor does she see the evidence of sale. “I have asked whoever Pearline Investment is to come to me with a receipt of the money they paid KCC and agreements they signed. Otherwise, KCCA will continue trying to reclaim the house from the Ministry of Defence.”

Musisi says her next focus is the land around the taxi parks, which had also been gazetted as non-disposable but was sold by the former council.