Nakivubo board plead with Museveni over Nakivubo

By James Bakama

Nakivubo stadium’s board of trustees have accused businessman Hamis Kiggundu of misleading President Yoweri Museveni in matters pertaining to the redevelopment of the sports facility.

The board has stated that Kiggundu fed Museveni on falsehoods in his quest to gain control of the entire facility.

It was reported yesterday that Museveni directed the Education and Sports ministry to hand over Nakivubo to Kiggundu for re-development.

Kiggundu, who is in the final stages of completing the first phase of the stadium’s re-development, told the president that Nakivubo had been blacklisted by world soccer governing body FIFA.

He told Museveni that the facility has been banned by FIFA from staging international matches. “That is a lie.

We have been hosting international matches, the most recent being the U-23 match against Mozambique three weeks ago,” stated Nakivubo Board of Trustees chairman Godfrey Mabirizi.

Mabirizi also noted that as a lawyer, Kiggundu should know that the stadium under article 11 of the Nakivubo War Memorial Act of 1953 can’t be sold, mortgaged or leased.

Mabirizi says the president rightly instructs the board to go into a Public, Private Partnership with developers but notes that Kiggundu again lied to the president on this process.

“By the time he met the president, we were in final stages of completing phase two of the re-development and had out of five applicants approved three.”

Mabirizi states that this was after clearance of the Solicitor General, the Public Procurement Disposal of Public Assets Authority and the line Minister. This was all after an advertisement in the National Gazette.

All this stems from a February 2009 Cabinet approval for the stadium to be re-developed under a Public Private Partnership arrangement.

What remains in the second phase is the plan approval by KCCA before the three companies begin work.

“What is interesting is that Kiggundu was well aware of this process and still went ahead to ask the president for a 49 year lease for the entire facility.”

Mabirizi says one of the reasons they are avoiding a sole private partner are the risks.

“Anything can happen to an individual,” he said.

The board also notes that having only one developer at this stage, is also ground for litigation.

“Remember that there are companies that have been approved. What do you tell them,” wondered the board chairman.

Mabirizi explains that the three companies will not only build the perimeter wall with lock up shops and parking lots but also improve on sports facilities.

Nterenfune Enterprises Ltd is going to build a modern 10,000 seater pavilion, upgrade the playing field to FIFA standard and build a modern gym at the stadium along Kisenyi side (Kafumbe Mukasa road).

Future land (U) Ltd is to build a modern sitting stand on the Villa ‘Kirussia’ side of Nakivubo Stadium along Namirembe road.

The third company M/S Bestin Ltd will build the remaining two stands into modern sitting areas in Nakivubo Stadium.

This all comes at a time when the stadium’s board and the line ministry are in court over developments in the area.

A group of sportsmen opted for legal action on grounds that the developments in the area were not sports oriented.

They were also challenging what they described as imminent eviction from the stadium’s gyms. Kiggundu had promised to construct modern netball courts but to date has not.

Soccer coach Tom Lwanga questions the promises that the developers will have sports in mind.

“Kiggundu had a lot of promises for netball. What has he done.”

Kiggundu’s side of the story

Kiggundu, who is popularly known as Ham, told New Vision in a January 15 interview that Nakivubo had become so dilapidated and the stadium fence was almost collapsing after fire outbreaks that gutted the Park Yard Market twice.

“We should also remember that URA twice locked it because of the failure to pay taxes. In such a situation, we created a project plan which would help the stadium as well as the business side,” argued Kiggundu.

He dismissed reports that the stadium will soon be history.

“The truth is, the stadium land was under-utilized so we had to come up with a plan to help all the concerned parties,” stressed the businessman.

He insisted they are going to put up serious renovations. Among the developments that are going to be put here include two netball courts, an indoor stadium to cater for the indoor games, modern offices for different sports disciplines, a world class gym, boardrooms among others.

On completion, Kiggundu said, the stadium will be able to host CAF and FIFA games because it will be turned into a world class stadium. He stressed that after three four years everyone will be happy

“We are not liars and worst of all we don’t intend to be liars before the president. People should trust us with the stadium developments.”