By Spy Uganda Investigations Desk
Majestic Commodities Ltd has threatened to drag Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to court for contempt of court order following a series of halts imposed by the Authority’s Physical Planning Office on its housing project located on Plots 1-5 Mpanga Drive and plots 67, 71 as well as 73-81, Mpanga Close Bugolobi in Nakawa Division, Kampala.
In a letter addressed to KCCA dated November 8, 2024, the company through its lawyers Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA), Majestic Commodities asserts that the recent order to halt its project violates a consent judgment entered into by both parties before the High Court of Uganda earlier this year, which expressly ordered that no such further illegal orders should ever arise by KCCA or any of its Agents siting same issues that had now been settles by High Court. Court warned that, it would be contempt of court and KCCA would be liable for any losses and delays.
Majestic Commodities Ltd in its letter contends that despite having obtained all necessary approvals from the same body, KCCA, and National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), some officials from KCCA with ulterior motives and personal interests have repeatedly been frustrating the project’s progress at every stage, yet they keep raising the same arguments that were already settled in court.
“We can’t blame KCCA as an entity, because they approved all our works here, but there are always those few individuals who want to to use KCCA as a mask to achieve their individual interests, But the good thing KCCA has invited us for a meeting on Tuesday aimed at harmonizing,” the project’s Engineer Arthur told our reporter who visited the place on Monday.
The company highlights that it acquired the land in 2010 with a plan to develop a multi billion Green-Housing project and secured all environmental and construction approvals from all relevant bodies in 2010. However, disputes over land ownership delayed the project’s commencement until 2019.
Read Majestic Commodities Ltd’s letter To KCCA
Letter to KCCA – Majestic Commodities received copy”All necessary environmental and construction approvals, including certificates from the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), were first obtained in 2011. However, due to a dispute over ownership of the land, the project commencement was delayed until 2019” reads part of the letter from Majestic Commodities Ltd.
Furthermore, a new issue arose in 2019 when KCCA attempted to cancel Majestic Commodities Ltd’s land titles, claiming the land was a wetland and after clarification from NEMA, which confirmed that the said land was not a wetland,following the Cabinet meeting which guided and classified it as a vanquished wetland, and okayed its land titles, Majestic Commodities Ltd continued to push for commencement on its projects.
”In 2019, your office sought to cancel our Client’s land titles for the subject land, citing that the land is a wetland. NEMA clarified that our Client’s titles were not in a wetland” the letter adds.
In March 2022, the company received a building permit from KCAA to commence the project.
However, in January 2023, KCCA requested revisions to the building and drainage plans, which the company deemed financially impractical and after a series of unfruitful meetings, Majestic Commodities Ltd filed a civil suit against KCCA.
The case was settled in February 2024 with High Court endorsing a consent judgment allowing the company to resume its housing project, provided it complied with NEMA’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and KCCA’s approved storm water management plan.
Despite the settlement, KCCA’s Nakawa Physical Planning Office recently halted the development again, alleging violations of environmental and drainage conditions.
In response, Majestic Commodities Ltd dismissed the baseless allegations noting that no construction had taken place yet and that only preparatory work to improve water flow had been carried out under the guidance of both NEMA and KCCA.
”No building operations have taken place on the land. All that is taking place is the dredging and opening up of the channels. This is aimed at improving the water flow. It should be noted that all this is being done with the knowledge of both your office and in fact, NEMA has visited the site and not raised any objection to the same” the company Engineer further noted.
Adding thus” Contrary to the allegations, our client has not done any fillings on the land. The land in question has not been backfilled. The social media posts that caused you to believe that our client was backfilling were baseless. Our Client has continued to take actions in accordance with the guidelines from both your office and NEMA. Therefore our client has not violated any of the measures by NEMA”.
In response to the company’s statement, our investigative team, led by Chief Spy, Andrew Irumba, took the initiative to visit the site in question to verify the facts. Our findings, indeed, contradict the allegations circulating on social media that the land has been backfilled. We also found Police that had come to verify the information to confirm whether indeed there was land filling, but later retreated after they found out that it wasn’t a fact.
Our investigations team however confirmed the dredging and opening of the drainage channels to facilitate water flow were the ongoing activity, at least by the time we visited the place. Engineers at the site confirmed that all activities are being carried out with the full knowledge of both KCCA and NEMA which visited the site without raising any objections to the work.
Watch Video Below To Get All The Shocking Details
Now, the company has warned KCCA that it will proceed with legal action if any further interference occurs since it has adhered to all legal and environmental requirements and considers KCCA’s actions to be illegal and obstructive.
The company has expressed willingness to meet with KCCA to resolve the situation but has made it clear that it will not tolerate further disruptions on its project.
Background Of The Land In Question
It’s worth remembering that in 2017, a Cabinet committee led by the Office of the Prime Minister determined that parts of the swamp were vanquished and had lost their ecological character.
The committee, which recommended allowing developers to promote alternative land use in the parts that were declared vanquished, said land titles had been issued in parts of the swamp before the 1995 Constitution was promulgated, and thus the law couldn’t work retrospectively, meaning that those who had already got their titles from the Vanquished land area were not affected by the new law, but were compelled to work within KCCA and NEMA guidelines, which Majestic commodities are ably doing.
This is also backed up by a High Court Ruling which expressly ordered KCCA and al other Agencies not to interfere with Majestic projects unless they were raising new grounds which had not been settled in court.
The government initially titled the vanquished Bugolobi wetland on April 1, 1987 and allocated it to Uganda Land Commission (ULC). It was later allocated to East African Clay Products, followed by Nyumba ya Chuma, then Nextel and is now owned by Majestic Commodities Ltd.
Cabinet, on the recommendation of the Policy Committee on Environment on June 7, 2017, exempted the said land together with the adjacent UBC land from any title cancellation based on the fact that these were titled lands before wetlands were protected by the Constitution of 1994/1995.
Capt.Mukula Sited In The Saga
Capt.Mike Mukula, who is a neighbour to Majestic commodities land has been identified as key saboteur to the project with vested interests of high-jacking the land with intentions of passing it on to another big investor friend and in return get a huge brown envelope as a “thank you buddy”, that’s according to our sources on ground.
As if that’s not enough, it’s alleged that Mukula, after crafting the fat-deal, recruited his mouth-piece Andrew Mwenda to handle the PR side as he handles the other side of the discussions, including placing a meeting, allegedly with the president to convince the current owner to surrender the land back to Government and get compensation in return.
In fact, to show that they had started on the project, both Mukula and Mwenda made tweets on their X spaces last week, in which they tagged president Museveni and other Agencies to intervene. This, would go along way in convincing the now interested investor they’re carrying on their backs to release the “1st appreciation signal”.
Mukula, according to our reliable sources, last weekend had reportedly organized a meeting with president Museveni mbu to facilitate a meeting between president Museveni and Majestic commodities to convince them to release the land and be compensated by Government in the region of about Shs50 Billion.
The sources also accused Mukula for playing double standards. “You see these politicians are very tricky people, Mukula is our neighbour here her, if this is a wetland and he believes in compensation, he should be the 1st to receive the compensation money and leave. How can this be a wetland but his is not yet we’re in the same area? Is it because he land-filled his and I have not? Two, At the time he’s telling our client to sit on table and discuss, he’s mobilizing goons from else where, transporting them in taxis to come and pretend to be affected by our project environmentally, is that a good man?’ the site Engineer wondered.
Mukula Responds
Our Chief Spy, Andrew Irumba, via phone call had a conversation with Capt. Mukula on the same, where we sought his response. Mukula denied building in a wetland himself. “Come to my home now and compare notes. But more importantly, the Government has no problem compensating Majestic commodities in exchange for protection of the wetland. If there are titles then they were released in error and Government can pay for its mistakes by compensating them, I can talk to the president about this,” Mukula added.
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Please try to take sometime and see what those guys are doing in the wetlands without bias. I actually stay in that neighbourhood and I can confirm to you that these guys are just backfilling with marram