Businessman welcomes gov't decision to compensate him for Lusanja land

Kampala businessman Medard Kiconco has welcomed the government's decision to compensate him for land in Lusanja after court ruled that he was the rightful owner.

While speaking to journalists at the Uganda Journalists Association offices in Kawempe on Wednesday, State Minister for Lands, Persis Namuganza stated that the government was in talks with the businessman to agree on how to compensate him and acquire the land for the people.

She said the ministry had already met Kiconco and that the permanent secretary, Dorcas Okalany had sent government valuers on the ground to come up with a figure.

In October 2019, the High Court judge Tadeo Asiimwe delivered a ruling stating that Kiconco was the rightful owner of the 3.89-acre piece of land.

The land is part of the 85 acres that the late Paul Katabazi Bitarabeho bought in 1978 from the late Namasole Bagalaayeze Lunkuse, the mother of Ssekabaka Daniel Mwanga of Buganda.

Kiconco maintains that he bought the land comprised on block 206, plot 671 at Mpererwe in Kampala in 2016 while the residents say their land is on block 198, Folio 13 in Wakiso district.

The businessman says that by the time he bought the land from Bitarabeho's descendants in 2013, there were only 17 squatters, whom he says he compensated.

On October 16, 2018, President Yoweri Museveni visited the residents whose houses were demolished and said that the government would refund the victims of the demolition once it is clearly established that the eviction was illegally carried out.

Speaking in a phone interview on Wednesday, Kiconco said he has no problem with compensating him for his land.

"Yes we had a meeting, I told them I have no problem with compensating me, this is my land, I toiled for it and it would be painful if people just come and grab it," he stated.

Without tagging a price yet, Kiconco said he was a private constructor who executed government work of re-opening roads in Northern Uganda after the defeat of rebel leader Joseph Kony and worked in hard conditions.

"I slept in ramshackle former Kony houses while we were opening roads in Northern Uganda and we went through a lot of risks and I saved some money, which I used to buy some assets, it would be bad for people to just take advantage of my hard-toiled savings," he said.

According to Kiconco, the government approached him and asked whether he was willing to leave the land if he is compensated, which he accepted.

"I want them to sort themselves first and come back to me, I know we shall reach a compromise," he said

The minister for lands, Beti Kamya recently wrote to another businessman, Dodiviko Mwanje asking him to come for a meeting to discuss how he would be compensated for the St. Peter's Church Ndeeba land, saying the ministry had finalised with a statutory instrument where it acquired the land in public interest.