State House official speaks out on contested Katanga land

A State House Legal Officer, Ms. Sandra Ndyomugyenyi has revealed that she acted within the confines of the law when she intervened in a land matter in Katanga, a Kampala city suburb.

According to Ms. Ndyomugyenyi, last year, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni received a petition from Dr. Ntwatwa Luke and some residents of Katanga, complaining about an illegal land eviction threat from Pastor Daniel Walugembe and Albinos Assimwe (administrator to the Estate of Doreen Ainomugisha). The landlord of the contested land is Makerere University.

“I intervened in the matter by having several meetings with the complainants, the pastor and the local leaders to address the matter, thereafter coming up with a report,” she said in a statement.

Ms. Ndyomugyenyi noted that the recommendations in the report created sanity in Katanga as the contention in court was to be resolved.

However last year, Mr. Albinos Assimwe sued Ms. Ndyomugyenyi over the recommendations made in the report and on October 27th, 2023, Justice Emmanuel Baguma declared that there was no decision arrived at by Ndyomugyenyi to give grounds for judicial review. He went ahead to state that the report of the meeting in this case was not a decision.

Pastor Walugembe also sued Ndyomugyenyi over the same report of the meeting and unfortunately, in his judgement, Justice Boniface Wamala considered the report as a directive.

“The directive allowing Dr Ntwatwa Luke to use his land without any disturbance from other parties claiming interest unless court pronounces itself otherwise contradicts this express order of court and is outrightly illegal. The first respondent (Ndyomugyenyi) is not vested with powers under any law to alter, vary or contradict a decision of a court of law,” Justice Wamala stated recently.

Justice Wamala also issued an order stopping Ms. Ndyomugyenyi and any other officer of government from implementing the State House directive contained in the June 13,2023 report reasoning that any further enforcement of the challenged directive would be illegal.

Now according to Ms. Ndyomugyenyi, there are two different and conflicting decisions of the High Court on the same matter arising from the same set of facts and the same report and she has since sought legal guidance from the Hon. Attorney General on the way forward.

“As we wait for the opinion of the Attorney General, I’m confident that I acted within the confines of the law and undertake to continue to act and uphold the law at all times while serving the citizens of Uganda,” she said.

“As you have always noticed, His Excellency the President has over the years expressed commitment to deal with illegal evictions against the citizens. He has put in place various guidelines and directives that must be adhered to when it comes to the issue of illegal evictions which we intend to maintain.”