By Isaac Wandubile
Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago was one of the key leaders who spoke at the KCCA inaugural Land Administration & Management conference that the City Authority organised and held at Nsambya-based Mestil Hotel this Wednesday. The Lord Mayor used the platform availed to him to share his views with a rich diverse audience that comprised of government Ministers (namely Kabuye Kyofa Togabye and Finance’s Henry Musasizi), representatives of the academia and private sector among others.
He made it clear that contemporary Uganda’s land management and administration problems can’t be blamed on absence of effective laws or enabling policy framework. An effective lawyer himself, Lukwago said the provisions of the 1995 Constitution, the RTA and the Land Act are some of the best you can find anywhere in the world but the problem is the bad politics of the day which has seen the President repeatedly issue executive orders resulting into giving away of especially public land in Kampala’s case. 
Besides Shimoni which was relocated to Kiira ostensibly to pave for a Chogm hotel, Lukwago made reference to the Kitante School in Kampala’s Central Business District which he said had lost 10 acres of land after the President wrote a letter directing that Prof Ssali gets allocated 10 acres to put up a facility to facilitate women fertility programs the deceased Ugandan researcher was working on at that time.
Lukwago caused prolonged laughter when he wondered why the same government, that believes and permits family planning, would at the same “be interested in things which fertilise women and increase their fertility.”
The City Lord Mayor cited the provisions of the law which create land management agencies in Uganda namely the district land boards and the Uganda Land Commission whose bosses he said had been misled by the President’s example to keep freely allocating land to developers which is an ultravires act in their case. Lukwago said that the Constitution under Article 239 only allows ULC to hold and manage public land as opposed to allocating it to developers the way they have lately been doing in Kampala and other parts of Uganda.
Lukwago said since land is an infinite resource, its not prudent for ULC to allocate the same because they are only supposed to hold onto land in public trust so that any day the GoU needs land for a public project say a school or hospital, ULC just steps forward to do the needful.
The Lord Mayor explained that its different when it comes to DLBs which the Constitution allow under Article 241 to hold and allocate land which isn’t owned by anyone though he made it clear he personally doubts if such land exists anywhere in Kampala or Uganda as the Constitution presumes the same to belong to the people on whose behalf ULC only holds it in trust.
Lukwago said that the ULC executives have deliberately been acting ultravires and in the process constrained his KCCA’s ability to effectively deliver especially educational services to the children of Kampala. That several public schools in Kampala have lost their land because of letters originated by unpatriotic executives serving at ULC.
He listed some of the schools which have been deprived and victimised that way to include Kitante, Nakasero Primary School (whose playground has been targeted) and Old Kampala SS part of whose playground is on the verge of being turned into a golf course. Lukwago said that would be inappropriate because that same place is surrounded by many other busy community activities such as prayers at nearby Old Kampala UMSC mosque which naturally will be disrupted as golf gets played nearby.
Lukwago also caused laughter when he casually castigated NEMA and NFA for sleeping on the job resulting into many wetlands and forests being decimated by private developers. He made reference to some of the forests he drives past on Kampala-Masaka highway each time he travels to his Kabungo village in Kalungu. He sarcastically said he recently was confronted by someone who told him the word ‘NFA forest’ written to designate many of the government forests that side must be aimed at indicating luganda word “nfa” which means “I’m dying.” 
That the person sarcastically told him this amounts to the vulnerable and exposed trees and diminishing forest cover crying out to Ugandans that “nfa or I’m dying even when NFA still exists.” This caused plenty of laughter given the jocular manner in which the Lord Mayor dramatised it prompting someone in the audience to jokingly declare “that’s going to be good content for Zungululu of this Friday.”
The satirical Zungululu famously airs under NTV news of akawungezi every Friday. The Lord Mayor wondered why NEMA and NFA were letting down Ugandans by merely looking on when the country’s wetlands and forests are being decimated by selfish developers.
Lukwago also denounced injustices against the mighty Buganda Kingdom (which was heavily represented in the audience) by referring to the former Crown Land over which the DLBs have jurisdiction. He asserted that this land (under the 1962 Constitution) formerly belonged to Kabaka’s Buganda Land Board which was decimated during the 1966 Buganda crisis and after. He asserted it was disrespectful of the Kabaka to treat this as land which isn’t owned by anyone and must therefore be hunted or looked for and appropriated by the DLBs. 
That in the case of his Kampala, its very hard to find such land because for years the Dr. David Balondemu-led KDLB has been trying to find some 5 acres for KCCA to establish the Lord Mayor’s Forest but in vain. That they haven’t managed to find such land anywhere though shrewd wealthy Kampalans like Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia and John Bosco Muwonge never fail to find such land whenever they need it within Kampala. Lukwago sarcastically reflected on this paradox but nevertheless proceeded to salute the DLBs for keeping within their mandate as opposed to ULC which keeps exceeding its mandate.
Erias Lukwago also thanked the Executive Director Dorothy Kisaka for organising the inaugural Land Administration & Management conference and Ministers Musasizi and Kyofa Togabye Kabuye for embracing the same. The Lord Mayor (who casually told guests about the chaos engulfing his FDC party) called on participants to concentrate on what can be done to mitigate the bad politics of the day so that matters relating to land Administration & Management can be effectively conducted under KCCA’s huge area of territorial jurisdiction without interference. 
Whereas Buganda’s Deputy Katikkiro Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa communicated the Kingdom’s readiness to keep partnering with KCCA, Dorothy Kisaka said it was very important to proceed in an inclusive way so as to ensure all stakeholders get to make their input into the best way to ensure sustainable and effective land use, administration & management in Kampala.
She saluted Gen Salim Saleh who during a July meeting focused a delegation of Kampala leaders on the need to prepare and have in place information indicating how much land is available in Kampala, who owns it and how its currently being used. At Saleh’s instigation, the KCCA got in touch with stakeholders like the Lands Ministry, Buganda Land Board, National Housing and a few others and got down to work.
That is how it was resolved to expand the operationalisation of the same idea by holding the inaugural Kampala Land Administration & Management conference this Wednesday meeting at the Nsambya-based Mestil Hotel where the event was gratefully well-attended to the total satisfaction of Ag Physical Planning Director Anita Kusiima through whom the ED’s office put together the event which participants ended up demanding becomes an annual calendar KCCA event. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at [email protected]).
