Govt to construct offices on Nakawa-Naguru land

By Chris Kiwawulo              

Government is to take over part of the Nakawa-Naguru housing estate for construction of offices, finance minister Maria Kiwanuka has revealed.

Kiwanuka said construction of Government offices on the seven-acre piece of public land at the Nakawa-Naguru housing estate was one of the projects Government had identified for funding under the Public Private Partnership.

Kiwanuka made the remarks at a function where Premier Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda was receiving the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Uganda, resident in Addis Ababa and also Permanent Representative to the African Union, Rashed Al Hajri, at the Office of the Prime Minister last Thursday.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office, Kiwanuka’s revelation came after Ambassador Rashed urged Uganda to exploit the available opportunities the Kuwait government offers, such as accessing some of the $2b (sh5.4 trillion) Fund available for bankrolling viable projects in African countries.

Jim Mugunga, the finance ministry’s spokesperson confirmed that there were plans to build government offices but could not readily ascertain whether the location was part of the 189-acre Nakawa-Naguru housing estate land.

The supervisory role for the redevelopment of the Nakawa-Naguru estate has since been removed from the local government ministry and given to KCCA and the President’s office, although the actual date when the redevelopment will materialise still remains a mystery.

KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju reaffirmed that they had taken over the project supervisory role, but said they had not got details about construction of government offices on part of Nakawa-Naguru estate.

“We are waiting for the completion of the handover of the project from the local government ministry. Our role will be to supervise and monitor the implementation of the project, but we are still waiting for communication from the President’s office about when it will start,” Kaujju stated.

Seven years after the contract for the redevelopment of the Nakawa-Naguru estate into a modern satellite town was sealed, nothing has been seen on the ground. The estate has since become a den of thieves.

Matters are made worse with news that the redevelopment hangs in balance after the developer – Opecprime Properties Limited – has seemingly lost steam following their failure to secure funding from a Dutch bank.

After the contract was signed in October 2007, work was meant to begin in January 2008. But it delayed when the tenants refused to vacate demanding that they get compensated first until government forcefully evicted them.

 A woman walks through Naguru Estate before it was razed to the ground to make way for redevelopments  

In May 2012, it emerged that Opecprime Properties Limited, a member of the Comer Homes Group UK, had failed to secure funds to start work after government evicted the tenants in July 2011.

But ever since government evicted the 1750 families from the two estates measuring 189 acres and handed over the site to the contractor in December 2012, no work has taken place. Naguru housing estate had 753 housing units while Nakawa had 932 units.

Sources revealed that Opecprime Properties failed to secure money from FMO (The Netherlands Development Finance Company), which had promised to fund the $300m (sh817.5b) project.

Nakawa-Naguru tenants’ chairman Simon Barigo said the Dutch bank’s officials visited the estate and talked to the tenants before they vacated and they expressed unhappiness at the way they were forcefully kicked out.

Barigo added that the low rating by international human rights agencies of Uganda’s democratic governance and human rights coupled with the unpredictable economy could have been the other reasons the Dutch bank opted out of the deal.

After the tenants were kicked out, it was discovered that over 10 companies and individuals had under unclear circumstances bought part of Nakawa estate land.

Among those given part of the land were; Islamic University in Uganda, House of Dawda, the National Library, William Nkemba, Mr and Mrs Ponsiano Ngabirano, Abner Besigye and CTM.

But during their meeting with Comer brothers, President Yoweri Museveni reportedly promised to revoke all the giveaways on the said land if the developers committed themselves to immediately commence work. Indeed, those who had been allocated the Nakawa land were later allocated the 57-acre Uganda Railways Corporation land in Nsambya.