Government has intervened in a dispute between National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) and the Rural United Business Association Network (RUSBA) Ltd over the Sango Bay land.
The land measures about 471 acres and is part of the 247 square miles of Sango Bay covering five sub-counties of Kakuuto, Kabira, Kyebe, Kasasa, and Mutukula town council.
The dispute started in 2020 after Kyotera District allocated 25 acres to RUBSA to construct a regional market.
However, RUSBA directors surveyed over 100 acres instead of the 25 acres that had been allocated to them. The company further extended by opening boundaries of over 400 acres.
Agnes Namusiitwa, the Kyotera LCV Vice-Chairperson, explains that when the government repossessed the Sango Bay land for oil palm growing, the 600 acres that belonged to the district were surveyed creating a rift between RUSBA and NOPP.
Last week, while laying a foundation stone at the project site in Luzinga Cell, Kasanvu Ward, in Mutukula town council, the army and police blocked RUSBA from holding any activities on the land.
Karim Karamagi, the RUSBA- Chief Executive Director, says the dispute could slow the project.
Defense Minister Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja says the matter will be sorted and the two conflicting parties will reach an understanding. He says that Sango bay land is too big and can house the two projects.
According to Gabriel Bwayo, the Kyotera Chief Administrative Officer, they cannot afford to lose any of the two projects.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, explains that although RUSBA did not follow the procedures, Kyotera district leaders and the central government should support the project because of its intended benefits to the community.
The market project was first commissioned by then Second Deputy Prime Minister, the Late Al-hajji Ali Kirunda Kivejinja in 2019. However, Degitech Energy Company Ltd from South Africa, which had proposed to be the main funder of the project, withdrew under unclear circumstances which stalled the project for two years before RUSBA got a new investor.
It was then recommissioned by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs Rebecca Kadaga last week after a Chinese Company, Sino Hydro Corporations Ltd, committed to funding the project.
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