By Mulengera Reporters
To the total relief of all parties involved, the wrangling over hundreds of acres of prime land on Mutungo hill between the estate of Dr. Mohammed B Kasasa on one hand and the beneficiaries of Kabaka Mutesa II’s estate on the other, is finally coming to an end.
The parties have been feuding over ownership of hundreds of acres of land in that Mutungo part of Nakawa Division since 2003 when the case was first filed, making it 22 years today.
The dispute is actually recognized as one of the oldest cases in Uganda’s court system. It started in High Court in 2003 and as of that time, Justice Muzamiru Kibedi (now of the Supreme Court) was one of the lawyers for Kabaka Mutebi who is one of Mutesa estate beneficiaries. Even many of the late Kasasa’s children (who are now men and women of age) were mere toddlers who have had to grow up seeing their father (now deceased) getting stressed with endless court appearances.
Prince David Wasajja, Kabaka Mutebi’s young brother, has been at the heart of this matter representing the Mutesa estate beneficiaries (chiefly his siblings) and now says he is as exhausted as all his siblings as a result of this expensive, divisive, belligerent and endless litigation.
Yet what is at stake is so huge that conservative estimates put the property constituting the subject matter to trillions of shillings. Especially the Kabaka’s side have hundreds of billions of shillings that is due to them in compensation from wealthy government MDAs being tied up in there because such payments couldn’t be effected because the suit land is subject to litigation matters that are in Court.
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL:
So on Wednesday, parties involved converged at Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo’s boardroom where a mediation session was convened. Having been agreed upon by all the parties involved as the best person to mediate, Owiny Dollo chaired the Wednesday session which was attended by roughly 30 people who were carefully chosen. Both Mutesa and Kasasa estates have a lot of stakeholders who don’t live in Uganda and for these, Dollo’s staff arranged to follow and participate in the session via zoom link technology.
Prominent Kampala lawyer Robert Kirunda was in attendance as the attorney for the Kasasa estate administrators and beneficiaries who include Dr. Sophia Nambalirwa Kasasa, Dr. Sarah Nabule Kasasa, Janet Nakawunde Kasasa and Issa Kasasa. George Kalemera from the Attorney General’s Chambers, who represent the Commissioner Land Registration (who is one of the parties to the appeal before Supreme Court), was also present and spoke very well of Dollo for prioritizing mediation.
From Kabaka’s side came Prince David Wasajja (beneficiary and administrator) who came with his sister Nalinya Sarah Kagere. The duo represented Kabaka Mutebi and Nalinya Dorothy Nasolo who was unable to make it because of frail health.
Lawyer Usama Sebuwufu, from the Kololo-based K&K Advocates, was in the house to placate the interests of his clients (the appellants) namely the Kabaka & his siblings. The Kabaka’s team also had Christopher Bwanika who is the Buganda Kingdom Attorney General besides being the personal legal advisor to the Kabaka of Buganda.
On walking into the room, moments after 10am, Owiny Dollo thanked the parties for embracing mediation in order to deescalate as opposed to continuing being in Court. He made it clear this wasn’t a Court session where the often very intimidating rules and procedures would strictly be applied. He called upon parties, and their respective attorneys, to be free to contribute to the discussion in whatever way they could.
Dollo made a long pre-amble explaining why Uganda ought to embrace mediation as one of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms. He made reference to the US where these days over 90% of civil disputes are resolved through mediation as opposed to the strict litigation approach which tends to be costly and adversarial-only producing one winner, leaving the other party vanquished, broken and exhausted.
Dollo said there was nothing good in winning and getting awarded lots of money but lose peace for the rest of your life because of inability to heal and harmoniously co-exist with your neighbor. He elaborated that, if America which is the world’s biggest economy has embraced mediation, there was no point for Uganda and the rest of Africa to continue with the adversarial system yet ADR had always been the African way to dispute resolution.
He made reference to Mato Put among his Acholi co-ethnics, which he said had for centuries enabled even criminal disputes to be amicably resolved. He made reference to the Kanyamunyu-Akena murder case which he reminisced was deescalated and resolved, while avoiding the very divisive ethnic debate that same Lugogo shooting incident was going to create in the whole country.
Saying prolonged litigation, such as this one over the Mutungo land, can be very embarrassing sometimes, Dollo called on parties to realize that there was no need to drag the good name of late Sir Edward Mutesa into such endless quarreling over mere earthly things. He appreciated that land is very important but even when that is the case, there can’t be justification for such a great man’s name to continue being disreputed and scandalized simply because his estate beneficiaries have to assert their right to property (in this case the Mutungo land). Prince Wasajja agreed with Dollo’s view that, even when the law allows the king to bring matters to court, it would be ideal and better if an important name or personality like the Kabaka is permanently shielded from ever being a party to any court dispute.
He warned that there was a high risk for the same Mutungo dispute to only get complicated and end up being inherited by posterity on both sides who had nothing to do with the circumstances that originally gave rise to the same. Kasasa always maintained that he bought the land from the Company which had acquired the same from Sir Edward Mutesa during his final exile in London after the 1966 armed conflict between him and the Obote-led central government of Uganda. His claim had all along been rejected and disputed by the Kabaka and other Mutesa estate beneficiaries.
Dollo focussed the parties before him on the fact that for much of the time, over the last 22 years, merits of the case had never been inquired into. It had all along been preliminary objections and applications and the CJ predicted there was a possibility this ping pong could potentially continue for another 22 years or even more. The matter reached in the Supreme Court as a result of the Mutesa estate beneficiaries’ side appealing after the Court of Appeal had ruled in Kasasa’s favour. Dollo asserted that the danger with the formal adversarial judicial system is that a wrong party might end up winning in court, which only deepens hatred as opposed to causing healing and mending of fences.
He appreciated the parties for realizing this exhaustive court battle wasn’t the best way and also for realizing the need to find some common ground through mediation. He thanked the parties and their respective lawyers for choosing him to be the mediator they are most comfortable with out of the many certified mediators available at the Supreme Court level. He also made it clear that resolving such a high profile matter through mediation is indicative of the extent to which the Ugandan judiciary is prepared to go to encourage mediation and have all disputes resolved through ADR.
KABAKA’S MESSAGE:
After making a long preamble, in which he called upon everyone to feel at home, Dollo invited parties to say something and first was Robert Kirunda who revealed that his clients had voluntarily thought about the 22 years they have been in court and are now exhausted and prepared to end the dispute through mediation. All along, and for decades, the Mutesa and Kasasa families were close friend-with Dr. Kasasa being Mutesa’s personal doctor at some point in time. It would be ideal if parties bury hatchet through mediation, mend fences and rebuild that friendship, implied one of the lawyers at the Wednesday mediation session.
In fact, Kirunda said that his clients were ready to conclude the dispute and sign onto the mediation agreement even earlier than the Monday 13th October which Dollo gave them. He said the lawyers needed a few days to harmonize everything, work out the final terms in consultation with the parties they represent and have their clients ready to append their signatures. The CJ said two weeks was enough time for all the necessary consultations to be carried out so that the final outcome and the resultant mediation agreement is as inclusive as possible.
An enchanted Dollo, motivated by the progress that was made at the Wednesday session, revealed that he was actually prepared to host the next sitting at his residence in Nakasero to help parties involved to realize that mediation isn’t about adhering to or observing any of the rigid court rules and procedures. That holding the session away from the formal court setting would help demystify many things and make parties to feel more comfortable to speak freely, without fear to breach court rules and procedures.
Counsel Sebuwufu, just like Kalemera, thanked Dollo for accepting to spearhead this pace-setting mediation-which is just one of the 14 complex court disputes which the Supreme Court is determined to resolve, and real soon, through appellate mediation.
Prince Wasajja said that, having been at the center of the Mutungo dispute for the last 22 years, he was more grateful to Dollo than anyone else in the Wednesday session. He admitted it had been very exhaustive and he and his siblings will eternally be grateful to have the same resolved through mediation-and as soon as that can be accomplished.
Wasajja revealed to Dollo that his elder brother, the Kabaka, was equally tired of the endless Court dispute regarding the ownership of the Mutungo land and would be relieved if the CJ can mediate and have the same urgently concluded. He said as Mutesa estate beneficiaries, they were excited about the prospect of the same being concluded in a manner that ensures win-win outcomes for all parties involved.
He revealed to Dollo that he was just completing talking to the Kabaka on phone as the CJ walked in to commence the Wednesday session. “His Majesty is equally grateful and was saying to me as you walked in that ‘that matter has indeed been on for too long.’ We are very grateful and we can’t thank you enough your lordship for your role in resolving this amicably,” Wasajja said as Bwanika, who sat next to him, nodded in approval.
The lawyers unanimously thanked Dollo over his readiness to host the subsequent mediation session at his Nakasero residence and they also thanked the Supreme Court Assistant Registrar in charge of mediation, Her Worship Elizabeth Akullo Ogwal, for her supportive role and for generally facilitating the preliminary discussions that paved way for the highly consequential Wednesday session.
Kirunda revealed that sometimes matters got heated up, as some of the stakeholders involved pushed for their maximalist demands but there was always harmony in the end because of Ogwal’s level-headedness. Dollo implored all the lawyers involved to avoid misleading and misadvising any of their clients involved in the Mutungo land dispute into all of a sudden becoming hostile to the idea of mediation. He said mediation had to be given a chance because it’s the only sure way to resolve matters cost effectively and quickly-yet everyone walks off a winner at the end of it all. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
