Bukenya sued over city land

Apr 01, 2008

<b>IGG wants property returned to Asian owners</b><br><br>Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya has been named in a property dispute involving his son, a retired UPDF officer and former Asian owners Sadrudin Hirani and Karmali Hiram.

IGG wants property returned to Asian owners

By Barbara Among and Charles Ariko

Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya has been named in a property dispute involving his son, a retired UPDF officer and former Asian owners Sadrudin Hirani and Karmali Hiram.

The house on Plot 72 Kira Road in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, is currently occupied by Maj. Praise Baryaruha.

Baryaruha, formerly with the Air Force Base in Entebbe, has sued Prof. Bukenya, his son Richard Mutawongwa and the Kampala District Land Board.
Baryaruha accuses Mutawongwa and the board of conniving to deprive him of his entitlement to get the lease.

Baryaruha said, as a sitting tenant, he was denied the lease due to “the intermeddling, influence-peddling and fraudulent manipulation of Prof. Bukenya.”

Baryaruha now wants the High Court to cancel the lease to Bukenya’s son and also order the board to grant it to him instead.

He also wants the court to stop Bukenya and others from selling, transferring, or entering the property.

In a response to the IGG who investigated the matter, Prof. Bukenya said he was ready to advise his son to abandon the lease provided he was refunded the premium and rates he paid for it.

However, the former Asian owners, Sadrudin Hirani and Karmali Hiram, have also sued Baryaruha and want the court to order his eviction.

Sadrudin Hirani and Karmali Hiram said the Ministry of Finance reverted ownership of the property to them in 2003, and the board renewed the lease on July 13, 2006.

The IGG recommended that the property be returned to its former Asian owners.
Baryaruha rejected this and went ahead with the suit. In January, when the former owners threatened to evict him, Baryaruha successfully asked the court to stop the eviction.

Accordingly, Justice Moses Mukiibi last month ordered Mutawonga, the land board and the former owners not to evict Baryaruha.

Baryaruha has occupied the sh500m property for 20 years now from 1991 when the defence ministry allocated it to him.

The property had been managed by the Departed Asians Custodian Board but the Kampala Land Board later took it over after its lease expired in 1999.
The board later allocated the plot to Mutawonga, who works in the United States.

However, at that time, the finance ministry also returned the property to the Asian owners, Sadrudin Hirani and Karmali Hiram. Baryaruha contested why the plot was not allocated to him although he was the sitting tenant and had applied for it first.

Documents showed that Baryaruha applied for the lease in April 2004 and was informed on April 6, 2005 that his application was not successful.

A month earlier, the land board had informed Bukenya that he had been granted the lease. Prof. Bukenya subsequently paid sh10m premium and sh1m ground rate.

Baryaruha consequently complained to the IGG that Prof. Bukenya had influenced the acquisition of the property.

In a report, the IGG concurred with Baryaruha and said Prof. Bukenya completed the application form in his own handwriting, followed the application through his staff and personally paid the premium and ground rate.

“From the interview with the VP, it is clear that the VP was fully involved in applying, following up using his messenger and payment of the plot. His son does not feature anywhere though in the interview he indicated that his son was around at the time of applying for that plot.”

“His application was never subjected to analysis and discussion like others. They simply carried forward the application of major Praise Baryaruha to accompany it at the voting stage and was eventually granted lease.”

The report added that the invisible influence of the Vice-President was evident in the granting of the lease to his son.

“Most likely the Vice-President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, pursued the property for himself since there was no sign of his son participating in the process.”

The report added that Bukenya admitted filling the name of his son on the plot application form and signing it. He also admitted to paying the premium on behalf of his son, who he said refunded the money and to using his member of staff to follow up the matter.

The confusion, the report added, was caused by the land board workers who front their own people for such properties.

“The reasons advanced by the Kampala District Land Board to deny the previous property owners the renewal of lease of that property were found wanting.”

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