Kololo school land given away

Apr 06, 2009

THE Government has given part of Kololo Secondary School land to an investor to build a private hospital.

By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe

THE Government has given part of Kololo Secondary School land to an investor to build a private hospital.

But the administration has protested to the education ministry on the grounds that the school wanted to build a classroom block to cater for the additional students under the Universal Secondary Education programme.

The ministry plans to build a classroom block and a laboratory under the $80m African Development Bank IV project which commences in May.

Head teacher Margaret Watuwa yesterday said the Uganda Land Commission, which ordered the give-away, did not notify the school about the transaction.

The management learnt about it two months ago when the investor requested to take over the land.

“People came and surveyed the land,” she said. “When we asked them what they were doing, they said the commission had given them part of the school land.”

She said the management wrote to the education permanent secretary seeking to overturn the allocation of the 1.2 hectares.

“We have no alternative land and we have requested the Ministry of Education to help us recover the land,” she said.

Peter Omora, an education ministry assistant commissioner, yesterday said: “We are consulting the land commission to resolve the matter.”

The school, located in the city centre, has about 2,000 students. It is one of the schools implementing Universal Secondary Education with 320 students in Senior One.

The head of the land commission, Mayanja Nkangi, yesterday said: “If the school has any complaints, they should come to us. Why did they go to complain to the press?”

Nkangi said the allocation was done in good faith to pave way for development and the ministry was consulted about it.

However, Watuwa said the ministry was not contacted.

“If they had, the school would have known before the land was allocated,” she said.

Nkangi said the school could challenge the allocation provided it had satisfactory reasons.

“Before we allocate land, we make an assessment. We established that the land was not being utilised,” Nkangi said. “If there was a mistake, we shall sort it out.”

This is not the first time public schools land has been allocated to private investors. Kitante Primary School land was given to investors while Shimoni Demonstration School was given away to a Saudi tycoon to build a five-star hotel. The construction is yet to start.

President Yoweri Museveni recently directed Kampala City Council not to displace primary schools in Kampala for the benefit of private developers.

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