The daughter of prince George William Chwa has dragged the Kabaka of Buganda kingdom, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II and six others to court for alleged trespass on their family land found in Munyonyo suburbs in Wakiso district.
The other respondents to the suit are Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the commissioner Land Registration Joseph Sempebwa, prince Kassim Kakungulu Nakibinge, Ferikitansi Keziya Nabisenke and princess Namukabya Nfamba in the Land Division of High court.
Through her lawyers of Guma and Company Advocates, Edith Mpologoma contends that she is a direct beneficiary of the estate of prince Chwa the son and heir of the late Buganda king Sir Daudi Chwa who died in 1939.
According to Mpologoma, Chwa owned the land measuring 18 square miles and obtained certificate number 18292 from the colonial administration. She explains that part of the land measuring 5.8 acres was given to the customary heir of Chwa comprising plots number 45 and 46 at Salaama Munyonyo.
Although Chwa had reportedly issued provisional certificates to some beneficiaries, Mpologoma says many didn’t take further steps to get land titles for the land. She contends that the said land was leased by the Lands Registry and a title issued to Kabaka Mutebi but has since expired. However, plot 46 is still in the names of prince George William Chwa.
She faults the Land Registry of returning the contentious land to the Kabaka Mutebi in 2013 as part of the kingdom’s “official mailo land” yet the property was part of the private estate of prince George William Chwa.
Mpologoma contends that there is a big difference between the land that belonged to the kingdom, which Buganda Land Board can manage as the controlling authority of Kabaka’s institutional land, and the land meant for princes and princesses, which is owned privately.
She faults the Kabaka’s agents for misleading government and the commissioner Land Registration to return the contentious property to the kingdom without conducting research to establish ownership.
Mpologoma says the Lands Registry came up with defective land titles purportedly signed by the commissioner/registrar in 1923 and 2013 with no explicit deed print of plot 45, but a combination of several plots of land whose leases have since expired.
She says that unless the Kabaka’s title is declared defective and cancelled, government and the public stand to lose immensely as government through KCCA is about to commit substantial resources towards construction of a sewerage lagoon on land whose ownership is heavily contested.
The applicant estimates the subject matter of her suit to be Shs 5 billion. The matter is yet to be fixed for hearing.
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