Sudhir owns CMI land, says Nkangi

May 11, 2009

THE chairman of the Uganda Land Commission, Mayanja Nkangi, has disagreed with the defense minister over the ownerschip of the land currently occupied by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe

THE chairman of the Uganda Land Commission, Mayanja Nkangi, has disagreed with the defense minister over the ownerschip of the land currently occupied by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

Nkangi in an interview yesterday said the commission leased the plot on Yusuf Lule Road to city tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia in 2006.

“It is not true that Sudhir did not get ownership of that land. The position is that the Uganda Land Commission gave him a five-year lease which would be renewed after he has fulfilled the proposed development on the land,” he said.

Nkangi noted that although the Constitution allows the Government to take over any land in the national interest, the Government would have to pay the owner.

“If the Government wants the land in the national interest, they would have to pay for it at the market rate determined by the valuer.”

Defence minister Crispus Kiyonga on Thursday told Parliament that Sudhir never acquired ownership of the prime plot where the CMI headquarters are located.

“The Government has never sold that land to Sudhir and, therefore, his claim of ownership of the land cannot arise; it is not a genuine claim,” he said.

He told the defence and internal affairs committee that the Government had instead given the land to the Kenyan government in exchange for a piece of land Uganda received at the coastal port of Mombasa.

But Nkangi yesterday said documents showed that the land commission leased the land to Sudhir on the instructions of President Yoweri Museveni.

“If the Government now wants the land for strategic reasons, they can reclaim it but the same law provides for compensation of the owner,” he explained.

The agreement was signed by Nkangi and the commission’s secretary, K.B. Mubaala, while Sudhir signed on behalf of Speke Hotel. The title was issued by the Commissioner of Land, E.K. Mbyetsiza, in October 2006.

According to the agreement, Sudhir was supposed to relocate the CMI headquarters and develop the land before 2011. The proposed development included a five-star hotel and a shopping mall.

In 2007, Sudhir asked CMI to identify another chunk of land so that he could build the new headquarters for them.

But the defence ministry has consistently argued that the deal was done without adequate consultations and that they were still the bona fide occupants of the land.

“The Land Commission moved without completing the consultations,” Kiyonga told the New Vision last year.

“Once that was found out, it was agreed that there must be negotiations with Sudhir so that the Ministry of Defence is given value for its land. This could be given in the form of new headquarters plus any balance to the tune of sh21b, the value of the plot as established by the Government’s chief valuer.”

The CMI land, which has been at the centre of controversy for years, is now the subject of a court case.

Sudhir, who owns Speke Resort Munyonyo, Crane Bank and Kabira Country Club, has petitioned the court to stop the Government from canceling his land title and block the allocation of the plot to the Kenyan government.

Sudhir was in the news last week when his other company, Meera Investments, emerged at the top of a Uganda Revenue Authority list of tax defaulters whose value Added Tax (VAT) and corporate tax arrears, amounting to sh26b, had been waived by the Government in 2008.

In a response in Parliament, Sudhir denied the allegations, arguing that he had received an investment incentive by the Uganda Investment Authority in 1995, which should have covered corporate tax and VAT.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});