Court delivers city abattoir verdict Tuesday

By Brian Mayanja

The ruling of the case in which businessman Dan Kwatampora Katarihwa sued meat traders of City Abattoir Traders Development Association (CATDA) takes place tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon at the Commercial Court in Kampala.

Katarihwa wants traders to vacate the premises, arguing that the traders are illegally managing the abattoir. Festo Nsanga, the Assistant Registrar at the Commercial Court is expected to make the verdict at 2:30pm.

Katarihwa, who claims to be the owner of the abattoir, states that he subleased the property from businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba in 2008.

In 2001, the then Kampala City Council (KCC) leased the piece of land together with the buildings to Basajjabalaba for 49 years at sh600m. However, meat traders under CATDA accuse Basajjabalaba of subleasing the premises to Katarihwa without their consent.

In October, Court ordered the 17 meat traders to restrain from interfering with the physical property situated at plots 1 and 3 Old Port Bell Road following an application filed by Katarihwa.

 The traders did not quit the premises, which prompted Katarihwa to ask court to issue a warrant of arrest for the 17 leaders of the traders on grounds that they were trespassing on his abattoir and managing it illegally.

Katarihwa also accused the meat traders of breaking the padlocks, locking the administrative offices and throwing out all the files for his company businesses. He added that the traders had evicted his management team and were illegally supervising his property.

"My business is now being enjoyed out by the defendants without legal authority, without observing laws in respect of public health and veterinary services," he said.

Last month a new controversy arose when the principal witness failed to explained the different signatures on his affidavits.
While cross examining Pastori Mukwatarise, the meat traders' lawyers Chrisestom Katumba and Abdullah Kiwanuka put him to task to explain why each of his affidavits did not have the same signature.

"A signature is part of the affidavit and on several occasions people sign on behalf of others,"Kiwanuka said.

To prove that Mukwatarise had used different signatures, Kiwanuka told him to sign on fresh pieces of papers, three times.

"These signatures are totally different from those on the affidavits. We have evidence that he did not sign these affidavits," he explained.