Nakawa-Naguru tenants are not opposed to devt but eviction

Aug 04, 2008

Tenants of Nakawa and Naguru housing estates have defied eviction orders from local government minister Kahinda Otafire meant to pave way for redevelopment of the estates. <b>Hamis Kaheru</b> and <b>Madinah Tebajjukira</b> interviewed the chairman of the tenants’ association, Simon Barigo, on the

Tenants of Nakawa and Naguru housing estates have defied eviction orders from local government minister Kahinda Otafire meant to pave way for redevelopment of the estates. Hamis Kaheru and Madinah Tebajjukira interviewed the chairman of the tenants’ association, Simon Barigo, on the wrangles...

QUESTION: Can you give a brief background to the conflict?
ANSWER: Naguru and Nakawa estates comprise 1,437 houses built by the colonial government for government workers. A good number of the occupants are retired civil servants who are pursuing their pension and gratuity. The colonial government wanted the occupants to acquire the houses in due course and own them. After independence, the houses were put under the Kampala City Council (KCC). Around 1968-9, the Government of Dr. Milton Obote upheld the policy that sitting tenancy should buy the houses.
When the idea to redevelop the estates came up, we met President Yoweri Museveni on December 24, 2003, and told him that we wanted the original idea of enabling sitting tenants to buy the houses to be the driving policy behind the redevelopment.

QUESTION: You did not want to leave the area?
ANSWER: We did not want eviction as the Mayor had planned to do. He had given us eviction notice. We want the developer to build in phases and also to be given the first opportunity to occupy the new houses.
The President agreed with us. He said as of now, these people are bonafide occupants, so where do you want to put them? The (then) Mayor, Ssebana Kizito, attended the meeting.

QUESTION: How can construction commence when you are occupying the houses?
ANSWER: The President agreed with us in principle that building must be in phases. There is an open space towards Naguru flats and Naguru hostel; it is two and a half acres. The developer can build four or five blocks on that space, allow some sitting tenants to move in and then break the old houses they have left so as to build more blocks. This is what we mean by building in phases. You build a few blocks of flats at ago from one side of the estate. No family should be on the streets because of the redevelopment.

QUESTION: What else did the President say at the meeting?
ANSWER: He said that the Government would get a developer, to ensure that it gets a financial institution that can extend mortgage financing to sitting tenants bearing in mind their low levels of income. The Government will also ensure that development must be in phases. That is what should have been reported to the Cabinet. But information is now distorted.

QUESTION: You are living in those houses without paying rent. Do you see that as a favour?
ANSWER: We were stopped from paying rent in December 2004 because they said the houses were condemned. They preferred to demolish the houses. Something which is condemned does not have a value and so cannot fetch revenue. These houses had a lifespan of 40 years but they are now 55 years. So the house has no value. It is like telling a policeman that you are enjoying free housing. He feels the services he is rendering to the Government entitle him to housing. We also paid a service to the Government by paying rent for 55 years instead of 40 years. In fact, we paid in excess. If the Government had put a mortgage scheme in place in the 1980s, by now we would be owning those houses.

QUESTION: How much were you paying?
ANSWER: There are different sizes of houses. I was paying sh150,000 for a four-bedroom house with two bathrooms, two stores, a kitchen, garage and a big garden of about 100x50 metres. Three-bedroom flats were sh120,000, two-bed room sh90,000 and one-bed room sh20,000. The cheapest house was sh15,000 and that is a unit. Majority are small size units. Some tenants are still paying. According to the letters from KCC, the houses are condemned but council authorities in Nakawa are still demanding money for them. They are paying willingly because that is the cheapest you can get in the city. You cannot get a three-bed room house at sh120,000 anywhere else in the city.

QUESTION: Did court stop the eviction?
ANSWER: Yes. We appeared before Justice Ann Magezi of the High Court. She gave us an interim injunction which is expiring, I think, towards the end of August. But we are supposed to appear before Justice Joseph Mulangira. Our case is against Opec Prime Properties Ltd and the Attorney General. Our contentions are that:
lThe President directed that there must be no eviction. We are contesting the planned eviction.
lThere must be phased development so that there is minimum interruption in the lives of the tenants.
lThe Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the developer should be looked into. The developer should know that there are tenants on the land and this calls for a tripartite agreement.

QUESTION: What do you want court to do?
ANSWER: We want court to, first of all, uphold the three points I have given above. We also want to know the official number of tenants in both estates. It must be according to the official KCC list. During the census, the number of households, groups, and villages were ascertained. But some people have inflated the numbers. They hope to benefit from that.
The IGG is investigating this aspect as well. Those people have even been selling non-existent houses to people who do not want to be seen there owing to their positions in government.
They are also convincing sitting tenants to sell off their houses on goodwill using the threat of impending eviction and for each house sold they get sh500,000 as commission.

QUESTION: What else do you want court to do?
ANSWER: The policy under which the houses were built, the owner-occupier scheme, should remain. Sitting tenants should occupy the flats when they are built and pay for them under a mortgage scheme and own them after 15 or so years. Those flats should be affordable. A report of consultants the Government engaged recommended that the cost of a two-bedroom flat is sh49m payable in 20 years and a three-bedroom flat sh57m payable in 25 years. We all agreed that it was affordable. We want court to uphold that.

QUESTION: The minister says you are mere tenants and that a landlord has a right to evict a tenant at will if he wants to break down his house.
The minister is hiding something. Our relationship with the Government is no longer landlord-tenant. It goes back to the agreement our parents signed with the colonial government – the owner-occupier scheme. After 20 years, one is supposed to buy the house. We are not ordinary tenants. We have a stake. The same ministers have benefited from the government pool houses which were sold to civil servants or sitting tenants under a mortgage scheme. Ours can also be treated as pool houses. Under the Land Act 1998, you cannot evict a tenant without compensation. Our families have lived in the estates since the 1960s.

QUESTION: So at worst you want compensation?
ANSWER: Yes. How can the Government give prime land to a foreigner free and leave its citizens on the streets. If you have changed your plan of building for them, then give them an alternative. You can curve out 27 acres for building flats that tenants can buy under a mortgage scheme and you will be left with 157 acres. Some tenants have relatives in the UK and the US and can buy the houses without government input. Look at Bugolobi flats. Some tenants could not afford to pay the National Housing and Construction Company but they reached an agreement with the Government and are paying gradually.

QUESTION: Press reports show that there is a rival association which supports the eviction.
ANSWER: That is Godfrey Kaganda’s group from the old executive. The old executive was replaced. The chairman, vice-chairman and treasurer passed away. The general secretary, one Kyalimpa, was sent to work in the resident district commissioner’s office in Bushenyi. Only Kaganda, the spokesman, remained around. He is claiming to be the chairman but he left Naguru estate in 2002 after selling his house on goodwill. When we got the second eviction order from Otafiire in 2006, we told Kaganda to call a meeting but he was reluctant. We did not know that he was working for ministry officials. So I called the parish meeting in my capacity as a councilor and deputy speaker of Nakawa. We formed an interim executive committee, registered the association with the Registrar of Companies, contributed money and got a lawyer. We applied to court for an order declaring the new association as the right body to pursue the matter. The court advertised the application for 14 days as demanded by the law. There was no objection and court granted us the order. That is how I became the interim chairman. Kaganda doesn’t speak for the tenants anymore.

QUESTION: Have you got back to the President since the meeting on December 24, 2003?
ANSWER: We have petitioned the President. The fillers we got indicated that he had directed the Minister of Lands, Omara Atubo, to make sure that Opec Prime Properties is properly investigated. They must carry out due diligence. It is likely it does not have capacity to build a satellite city. We also want a tripartite agreement between the Government, developer and the tenants.

QUESTION: Anything else you want to say?
ANSWER: Yes. We feel that if the developer does not want us to be partners, he should give us reasonable settlement. An acre of land in Naguru and Nakawa is valued at sh1.4b but it is hard to find an empty acre there. If the Government is giving you 184 acres worth sh257.6b, why can’t you pay sh40m to each of the genuine 1,437 families. You would spend only sh57.48b on compensation and remain with free land worth over sh200b. The Islamic University is willing to negotiate with the tenants on their 10 acres. Why not Opec Prime Properties? But we are more interested in the December 24, 2003, agreement with the President being implemented.

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