By Mulengera Reporters
It’s no secret that Kampala logistics mogul and businessman Albert Muganga is a powerful actor partly because he marries one of Senior Ugandan politician Sam Kutesa (who also father’s CDF Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s wife Charlotte)’s daughters.
And it’s also a public secret that the same Albert Muganga is the investor behind the stalled Pioneer Easy Bus (PEB) project hundreds of whose buses have for years been parked at the parking lot of Mandela National Stadium Namboole. The hitherto dilapidated Namboole Stadium is currently undergoing renovation at a cost of Shs97bn by the UPDF Engineering Brigade whose failure to deliver and complete the works on anticipated time has been the cause of debate in Parliament since last week.
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The Namboole fiasco escalated on Monday when the Speaker Anita Among led a team of senior legislators to go and see for themselves the truth in the allegations that two MPs (Jonathan Odur and JB Nambeshe) had made on the floor last week to the effect that CAF inspectors had recently described the ongoing works as poor and unsatisfactory. Among, as was reported by her during the Tuesday plenary, found a slightly better picture than had been depicted by the two opposition MPs.
So, during the Tuesday session, the Speaker Anita Among signaled Commissioner Mathias Mpuuga to read out contents of the report that was compiled for the Parliament Commission by him illustrating the situation at Namboole.
In his report, Mpuuga praised UPDF Engineering Brigade for doing a good job but also spoke about several other things including the extent of encroachment on the 128 acres of prime land which is supposed to be Namboole’s. He revealed that one of the reasons CAF inspectors found the Stadium unsuitable to host international matches related to the fact that its would-be parking space for people coming to watch matches had been turned into a scrap parking yard for hundreds of Pioneer Easy Buses.
Mpuuga proceeded to explain the circumstances under which PEB, which is a private company, came to get possession of Namboole’s parking space land. He revealed he conducted meetings with stakeholders including Albert Muganga, the director PEB, who made it clear that they had legally been allocated the land under the 49 years’ lease arrangement that was executed for them by Uganda Land Commission (ULC).
That because their lease turned out to be defective, as it ended up running out ahead of time, their company PEB had since dragged ULC to court for breach of contract and are demanding to be compensated Shs25bn for the inconvenience and loss that is supposed to have been occasioned onto their business. This greatly angered MPs to hear that the Company running Namboole Stadium whose land had been encroached upon, was now being required to pay the encroacher Shs25bn.
The angry MPs then demanded to know how ULC came into the picture when it’s well known that the 128 acres, comprising of Namboole, belongs to the Ministries of Finance and Education which are the joint shareholders on behalf of the GoU. It turned out that ULC just moved in and leased the land without involving the Namboole company management nor even the two shareholders.
Peter Ogwang, the Sports Minister, was tasked to explain why his Ministry had been quiet for all these years without doing anything to protect government property. Ogwang said he had equally gotten appalled when he became Minister there and learnt of this state of affairs. He said he had recently directed the management of Namboole to take steps including securing a Court order kicking out PEB whose bosses have since vowed not to move and take away their scrap buses until their Shs25bn compensation is paid.
A furious Anita Among directed that COSASE immediately commences investigations into the matter with a lot of emphasis going onto ULC whose bosses, as of that time, will have to explain who mandated them to lease out land that belongs to another government entity. Among demanded to know how much Pioneer Easy Bus Company had paid for the lease and where that money was put or what it was exactly expended on.
She also demanded to see heads roll at ULC and the Lands Ministry which has supervisory authority over ULC. It was made clear during the debate, as was corroborated by FUFA President Moses Magogo, that CAF inspectors will never approve the newly rebuilt Namboole stadium as fit to host any international matches as long the PEB buses aren’t removed for the Stadium to reclaim and get back it’s parking lot for spectators coming to watch football matches. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at [email protected]).