By Spy Uganda
Uganda Land Commission (ULC) officials have Friday January 7 2022 shown Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba the land proposed for Senegalese-American based singer Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam RDC better known by his stage name Akon, to establish his satellite city.
In April last year the RnB singer, on his visit to Uganda was promised land by President Museveni to build what he termed as Akon ‘futuristic’ City. President Museveni later directed lands Minister Judith Nabakooba to identify land that Akon would put to use.
The land measuring 1 square mile is under free hold register Volume 53 Folio 9 and is owned by Uganda Land Commission.
“True, we’ve allocated him land as per presidential directive but it has conditions. The first one is that it’s given to him on lease basis. If he doesn’t utilize it as per agreement in 5 years, it will be withdrawn and returned back to ULC,” a source with in lands who didn’t want to be quoted told our Spy when asked for details about the offer.
Inspecting the land located in Mpunge sub country, Bulebi village in Mukono District, Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba who was in company of State Minister for housing Persis Namuganza said she was excited with the fulfilment of the presidential directive.
Nabakooba explained that she met the ULC commissioners some time back and told them of the directive to get the developer land to build a city.
She explained that any city, whether tourism or satellite, is a development to the country and it comes with a lot of benefits like employment, road construction and infrastructural enhancement.
“Akon is seriously interested in investing in the country. His representatives have been calling me almost every month to ask for updates and see progress. If they had the land they would have started already. Since the president committed to give him land and directed us to get it, we needed to see that the directive is fulfilled,” she said.
The minister thanked the commissioners for the work sofa done and tasked them to find who the other interested parties in this piece of land are. She said the fencing on the land that was not there a year ago could mean subdivision has taken place on the piece of land.
“My task to you and the district officials is to go back and investigate deeply how it came about. Work with the district land board and look at the documentation properly such that if we are to do a job, and communicate to His Excellency, we need to have our facts right and all the interested parties sorted.”
She added: “The good thing is that the land has not yet been developed, meaning it is redeemable because there are no structures. This means a consensus can be reached with the other parties and we find a developer who can make us proud as Mukono and as citizens of Uganda.”
Prof. Nyeko Pen Mogi, the acting chairperson of the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) thanked the ministers for accepting his invitation to be shown the land on short notice. (sanjaytaxpro.com)
He said it is absurd that such a beautiful place is not generating any income to the country and not creating any employment opportunities.
“When you mentioned to us that there is a presidential directive that the government should look for land for a developer, we were excited and mentioned to you that there is this land here. We are happy that you have come to see the land physically and when you are going to inform the president about the availability of the land, you will know the type of land which is extremely suitable for the tourism city.”
Prof Nyeko reaffirmed the fact that the land belongs to ULC and asked the minister to be confident about that.
“This land belongs to ULC. Much as we may see some of these other poles being planted, the land belongs to ULC and the rest we shall proceed very quickly and as a commission we shall identify some acres of land and allocate it to the developer following the presidential directive and from there, you will proceed with informing the president.”
On her side, State Minister for lands, Persis Namuganza also thanked ULC for taking on the task ever since the minister communicated to them about the presidential directive of providing land for Akon City. She said that as a minister responsible for housing, she hopes to see very unique and beautiful structures in place once the development starts.
“When you look at the view, the lake, the mountains, the mini city will attract a lot of Ugandans to this place. The buildings I saw in the Akon City architectural plan, if followed to the dot, will raise the standards of Uganda to have one of the biggest cities in the world.” 
