All seemed easy, especially after the President pronounced himself, advising Electoral Commission to forget about considering the Butabika land as their new home. He went an extra mile to even offering them an alternative. But alas! The mafia in this deal seem determined to bend any laws and or advice, irrespective of where it comes from. All this, in the name of having the purchase dimes land nowhere but in their pockets.
On this website lies a story where, the president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, on top of his advice, had instituted a parallel investigations team alongside that of Inspector General of Government (IGG), to get to know the in-depth detail why many parties and individuals, including one in his homestead, are madly interested in a particular,yet questioned property, for Electoral Commission to buy a permanent home.
The son of Kaguta`s instincts were not a mere illusion. Preliminary investigations have it that all parties deeply involved in the matter are doing so in favor of the Butabika land comprised in plot 9, Dukes Road in Kampala. The land is currently occupied by structures of former GEMS Cambridge International School, the same owned by a Kampala businessman Pradip Karia.
The revelations are that so much incentives have already exchanged hands to the extent of compromising almost all the stakeholders in the transaction. It could be the reason why, even the IGG has since changed her mind and religiously cleared the piece of land previously declared by NEMA as a wetland preserve, only fit for “construction of wastewater treatment facilities, eco-tourism and other leisure related activities, on a maximum area of 30 acres.”
But as the IGG changes positions, we can irrefutably divulge how a new owner has emerged for the very land that EC is being pressurized to purchase! We are not bluffing. His name is Isma Zuma Kisseka Mawanda. The new owner in the mix, has gone ahead and placed a caveat on the land. He took the action, to stop the people marketing it for sale. The new development will ideally complicate these already complex matters for the people strenuously talking to EC to purchase it. Such people, needless to mention again, include the big man in the president’s compound.
Mawanda has escalated these matters further by taking it up with the Internal Security Organization (ISO). Bearing the subject; “Procurement Process of Acquiring of the New Offices of Uganda Electoral Commission in Butabika”, the complaint is addressed to the ISO boss, Charles Oluka.
Mawanda claims to have inherited the land from his departed grandfather, Kisekka Musajjatadiba. He explains that while he was away in Zambia for two decades, Pradip Karia, working in concert with KCCA, altered the land to Property Services Limited, a real estate firm. Pradip owns this company. He has since constructed a school on the now contested land, which he has since, also abandoned and he is now talking to EC to purchase the same.
Before we forget, this land has also ever been registered by whoever registered it, in the names of Nationwide Properties Limited. For the reason that the land is a wetland, the firm went ahead and obtained a permit from NEMA before using it. This, by lying to NEMA that they were not going to use it for any other purpose, apart from that of constructing a waste management plant and for recreation services. Yet, the firm ended up blowing its cover by constructing the other international school mention earlier!
Even then, and as it turns out, the ownership of the land is currently in the names of Pradip Karia, Minex Nandilal Karia, Kinnal Pradip Karia, Alnasir Gulamhussein and Nadir Hassan Virani. Each one of them, is listed to own an equal share in the land. For purposes of clarity, each of them own 20 percent of the land! This fact is clearly borne out by the Title of the land in question. And yet, no one can tell, except himself, why Pradip used Property Services Limited, to bid for the EC deal! This posture, in the face of the glaring reality that the firm is a stranger to the deal, at least, going by the title of the Title itself.
As we are still at it, the IGG, Betty Kamya Namisango Turwomwe has also mixed up these matters a lot more! Whilst her own officers visited the land in the past, and confirmed it to be a wetland, she has since changed positions. She now asserts how the land is so suitable. And so, she strongly backs EC to hurry up and purchase it! She sweetens up her submissions by informing the president how EC has spent eight years now, looking for the land for its home, but in vain. This stance, as if EC must recklessly purchase any land that is thrown at it, merely because it has taken time to find the same!
She wrote to the president as currently as 29th April 2022, changing the goal postsin less than a month! The president himself had written earlier before, counseling EC and whoever was marketing the land, to leave it alone, because it is a very, very strategic wetland. Yet the IGG is here now, asking his boss to depart from his executive advice and take on her’s. And which hers, looks to be masked in controversy! We hold so, because the IGG herself had written earlier before, to advise that the place EC is being asked to purchase, is a wetland!
As we try to figure out what is going on, we again get to hear of reports that the government Chief Valuer, who had earlier valued the land at UGX111Bn, has since scaled down the price to UGX75Bn! One pondering over all these issues, gets away with the impression that what is happening is happening because whoever is selling this land wants to hurriedly get it off their hands, remembering that it’s a wetland where they went ahead and built a school against what they had agreed with NEMA. We shall leave it at that for now but pledge to possibly carry out a background check on the people owning this land because we respectfully feel something is wrong.
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