MPs set up KCC probe team
Feb 21, 2007
PARLIAMENT has set up a select committee to investigate Kampala City Council (KCC) over the alleged illegal sale of land.
By Apollo Mubiru & Felix Osike
PARLIAMENT has set up a select committee to investigate Kampala City Council (KCC) over the alleged illegal sale of land.
MPs also want the committee to handle related land issues including the unclear circumstances under which the Baganda Bus Park was sold and how Butabika Hospital land was allocated.
The House, chaired by deputy Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, on Tuesday voted in favour of a petition presented by Bukanga MP Nathan Byanyima, asking Parliament to set up a select committee to handle issues of the alleged illegal sale of 11 plots at the Old Taxi Park.
Byanyima, on behalf of members of the non–resident tenants association occupying KCC shops at the park, tabled a petition asking the House to direct KCC to halt and revoke any sale of the plots.
The City Council allocated 11 plots to private individuals without consulting sitting tenants on whether they had the capacity to buy and develop them.
Kadaga said she would name a committee soon after consulting both the Government Chief Whip and that of the Opposition.
She said the select committee would execute its work and report back to the House in a month’s time.
Efforts by the general duties minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Adolf Mwesige, to have the issues handled by the relevant Parliament committee were defeated as most MPs backed Byanyima’s argument for a select committee.
Byanyima argued that the gravity of the matter required consideration of a select committee, given the number of wrong things going on in the City Council.
Tororo County MP Geoffrey Ekanya submitted that: “For purposes of sanity and to enable the committee do a thorough job, the terms of reference should include Butabika land. It should also widen its scope to look at issues of illegal land grabbing, where some people have erected buildings even on sewer lines.â€
Dokolo MP Okot Ogong, who described the petition as an eye-opener of the rot in KCC, said although the Baganda Bus Park was a gazzetted bus terminal, KCC sold it off for shopping malls.
He charged: “I don’t know the way certain issues are handled in this country.â€
The Minister of Local Government appointed a commission of inquiry into the proposed sale of the plots and compiled a report last year.
The President directed that the report be debated by Parliament but the matter had never come up.
PARLIAMENT has set up a select committee to investigate Kampala City Council (KCC) over the alleged illegal sale of land.
MPs also want the committee to handle related land issues including the unclear circumstances under which the Baganda Bus Park was sold and how Butabika Hospital land was allocated.
The House, chaired by deputy Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, on Tuesday voted in favour of a petition presented by Bukanga MP Nathan Byanyima, asking Parliament to set up a select committee to handle issues of the alleged illegal sale of 11 plots at the Old Taxi Park.
Byanyima, on behalf of members of the non–resident tenants association occupying KCC shops at the park, tabled a petition asking the House to direct KCC to halt and revoke any sale of the plots.
The City Council allocated 11 plots to private individuals without consulting sitting tenants on whether they had the capacity to buy and develop them.
Kadaga said she would name a committee soon after consulting both the Government Chief Whip and that of the Opposition.
She said the select committee would execute its work and report back to the House in a month’s time.
Efforts by the general duties minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Adolf Mwesige, to have the issues handled by the relevant Parliament committee were defeated as most MPs backed Byanyima’s argument for a select committee.
Byanyima argued that the gravity of the matter required consideration of a select committee, given the number of wrong things going on in the City Council.
Tororo County MP Geoffrey Ekanya submitted that: “For purposes of sanity and to enable the committee do a thorough job, the terms of reference should include Butabika land. It should also widen its scope to look at issues of illegal land grabbing, where some people have erected buildings even on sewer lines.â€
Dokolo MP Okot Ogong, who described the petition as an eye-opener of the rot in KCC, said although the Baganda Bus Park was a gazzetted bus terminal, KCC sold it off for shopping malls.
He charged: “I don’t know the way certain issues are handled in this country.â€
The Minister of Local Government appointed a commission of inquiry into the proposed sale of the plots and compiled a report last year.
The President directed that the report be debated by Parliament but the matter had never come up.