Sudhir clings to CMI land

Oct 30, 2008

CITY tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia yesterday said he will go to court if the lease for his land, currently occupied by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), is cancelled.

By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe

CITY tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia yesterday said he will go to court if the lease for his land, currently occupied by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), is cancelled.

Sudhir said officials at the Ministry of Defence had not engaged him in talks to compensate him or repossess the land located on Yusuf Lule Road.

“I have the land title and I got it through the right procedures. If I lose that land, then I will have to go to court. The law protects me as the rightful owner of that land.”

Sudhir said he was willing to relocate the CMI headquarters so that he can develop the property.

“I have been waiting for them to show me where to build other headquarters so that they can vacate my land. That was the agreement we made and it has not been changed,” he said.

The chairman of the Uganda Land Commission, Mayanja Nkangi, said Sudhir was the rightful owner of the land in Kitante. “As far as I know, Sudhir owns that land. The instructions which we were given to lease him that land have not been changed. I would be aware if the lease was cancelled because that is the commission’s job,” he said.

President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday said the CMI land would be given to the Kenyan government in exchange for land in Mombasa on which a depot would be built for easy movement of goods.

Museveni is in Kenya to attend an Inter-Governmental Authority on Development meeting.

A statement from State House said Museveni and President Mwai Kibaki agreed to exchange the 6.5 acres of land in Kitante for some other land in Mombasa.

A source said for the Government to repossess the land, it would have to wait until 2010 when Sudhir’s conditional lease would be reviewed.

Sudhir said he is still interested in building a modern shopping mall and a hotel on the land in Kitante.

But the defence ministry said Sudhir had not paid sh21b determined by the chief government valuer in May.

The Government offered Sudhir the land in Kitante in 2006 in exchange for the Shimoni land, which had been allocated to him, but was instead given to a Saudi Arabian investor.

Sudhir paid sh168m as part of the ground rent, while he was supposed to use the rest to relocate the CMI headquarters.

Media reports yesterday indicate that the Government was consulting the Attorney General on compensating Sudhir to give up the land in Kitante.

“We are consulting the Attorney General so that the land goes back to the Government, even if it means compensating Sudhir because the depot in Mombasa will help the country a great deal,” said Ruth Nankabirwa, the defence state minister.

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