UTL prime land in Kololo grabbed

Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) has lost nearly nine acres of prime land on Kololo Hill, an upmarket city suburb, New Vision has learnt. According to documents that New Vision has obtained, the land located at Summit View, Kololo is comprised I Plot M27.

The land measuring 3.6ha belonging to the government-owned telecom company has been occupied by the defence and veteran affairs ministry, since May 25, 1988. However, the relationship between the ministry and UTL has never been formalised.

New Vision has learnt that the land has been fraudulently sub-divided into plots, which have been allocated to private individuals and influential officials in security agencies.

According to documents New Vision has obtained, the land located at Summit View, which originally comprised Plot M27, has now been registered under Plot 25-29 Hill Lane.

Sources told New Vision that the fraud was discovered during the UTLaudit that is currently underway.

There have over the years been accusations of UTL asset stripping.

Following the discovery of the development, the UTL administrator wrote to the lands ministry's permanent secretary, Dorcas Okalany, on July 27, bringing to her attention the fraudulent transaction involving the aforementioned land.

A highly placed source said officials in the finance and lands ministry, as well as Kampala Capital City Authority are suspected to have participated in the fraud.

"They must have been involved. For example, how does one sub-divide registered land without the knowledge of the landlord (finance)? Who signed on the transfer forms? That means you have officials in the land registry," a source added.

Due to the urgency of the matter, the UTL administrator also alerted the finance minister, Matia Kasaija, who in turn wrote to his lands counterpart, lands minister Beti Kamya, on August 10 demanding the cancellation of the fraudulent land titles.

Citing a letter written to the ministry by the UTL administrator, Kasaija informed Kamya that the fraudulent transaction was discovered during a recent inspection of the firm's assets by the Chief Government Valuer.

"Investigate the fraudulent activities resulting in the illegal change in the size of UTL's land comprised in Plot M27, now Plot 25-29 Hill Lane, as well as the circumstances under which a company called M&R Properties Ltd came to own UTL's land comprised in Plot 1 Hill Lane, Kololo," Kasaija said.

Available information indicates that M&R Properties Ltd is a local real estate company.

Kasaija demanded that the "officers and individuals" involved in the fraud be brought to book.

"Cause the reinstatement of the acreage of Plot M27, now 25-29 Hill Lane to its original acreage of 3.6ha," he added.

Okalany said a team from the lands ministry was assigned to work with UTL officials to investigate the matter further and resolve it.

"I know about the matter. The land belongs to UTL and has a problem, but it will be solved. The team has been on a fact-finding mission and could not report before completing its work," she said, adding: "But I do not have the update now."

The finance ministry's spokesperson, Jim Mugunga, confirmed that Kasaija wrote to Kamya after the taskforce set up to audit UTL uncovered the land fraud.

"The audit exercise is still underway, but during the exercise, the team found out that there has been a systematic stripping of UTL's assets, including land grabbing," he added.

Mugunga said Kasaija opted to alert his counterpart in the lands ministry even before the audit is concluded so that urgent action can be taken.

On March 1, 2017, the Government announced that it had repossessed UTL by acquiring 100% stake in the heavily indebted firm following the breakdown in negotiations between Uganda and the Libyan state company on revamping the telecommunication organisation.

Until then, Ucom, an offshoot of LAP Greencom Network, a subsidiary of the state-owned Libya Posts Telecommunication and IT Company, held a controlling 61% stake in UTL.


The Libyan firm acquired 51% in UTL in 2000, but its shareholding was raised to 69% in 2006 after Ucom alone raised the $26.4m that was needed to finance expansion and network upgrade.

However, the Government and Libyan company had since 2014 been locked in negotiations to revamp UTL, which by 2017 was indebted to the tune of sh709b.

After the acquisition of 100% stake in UTL by Government, there was need to verify and list the assets owned by the firm, as well as establish its real financial position to attract a new investor.

However, a fierce dispute broke out last year over who and how the audit should be conducted.

The High Court in January 2019 cleared the audit and also named former Uganda Law Society president, Ruth Sebatindira, as the UTL
administrator.

The court named Sebatindira while considering a petition filed on December 17, last year by the Uganda Contribution Employees Contributory  Pension Scheme (UCECPS).

UCECPS, one of the UTL's creditors, petitioned court to replace UTL's administrator, Nelson Bemanya, arguing the he had failed to collect the outstanding amounts of up to sh12.2b due to UTL from the Government.

Since April 2017, UTL has been under a receiver after its indebtedness rose to the tune of sh709b against an asset base of sh148b.