Court to deliver verdict on Namanve Industrial Park land

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Judgement in a case in which a Ugandan citizen, Andrew Muyonga Mubiru, seeks cancellation of certificate of titles for 13 investors in Namanve Industrial Park, is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

Justice David Matovu of the Mukono High Court is expected to deliver the judgement after deriving his ruling from the submission of the parties.

Mubiru is being represented by lawyer Francis Ssebowa, who also represents Godfrey Kalule Kirumira, the Consul of Namibia in Uganda, in a matter related to land in Namanve.

Mubiru wants the titles cancelled, claiming that they were issued illegally by the Government through the Commissioner Land Registration.

The freehold certificates of titles in question are on land comprised in Kyaggwe Block 113 Plots 1447, 1278, 1455, 1501, 1502, 1503, 1504, 1505, 1453, 1631, 1633, 1256, 394, 391, 396, 395, 2559, 2560 and 1448, land at Nantabulirirwa in Mukono district.

Last year, Mubiru dragged to Mukono High Court, the National Forestry Authority (NFA), the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), the Commissioner of Land Registration and the Attorney General, who is the principal legal advisor of the Government.

The investors sued include Patel Hirji Sureshkumar, Luo Xiao Ming, Kanji Lalji Hirani, Mul-Kin Enterprises Ltd, Tenghui Industrial Co-SMC Ltd, Liberty ICD Limited, Narendrakumar Vithalbhai Patel, Joseph Emoit, Gerald Godfrey Ssambwa, Firoz Rajabali, Jamani Shaahid Ramzan Ali and Redcorr Uganda Ltd.

He claims that NFA, NEMA, Commissioner Land Registration, and the Government failed in their statutory duties to protect and preserve natural resources entrusted to them.

Mubiru seeks cancellation of titles on grounds of enforcement of his human right to a clean and healthy environment and preservation of natural resources/protected areas, by the Constitution.

The respondents, however, argue that Mubiru has no locus to sue because he does not own property within Namanve Industrial Park.

The investors also state that the issues of Namanve Industrial Park have already been decided by the High Court in previous suits.

Court ruling

In 2022, Justice David Batema, (now of the Iganga High Court), ruled that the certificates of titles for plots of land in Namanve Industrial Park were issued legally and prohibited the Commissioner of Land Registration from cancelling the titles.

Batema also ordered government officials to stop marking and managing land in compartments, saying they are not recognised legally but only for administrative purposes, as this cannot be captured on the existing official computerised land management and registration systems.

The court ruled that land measuring approximately 900 acres no longer forms part of Namanve Forest Reserve. The ruling renders the letter NFA addressed to Mubiru, on April 29, 2022, indicating that the plots form part of the Namanve Central Forest Reserve and wetland, nugatory.

The judgement was in respect to a court matter filed by Capital Ventures International Limited against the Commissioner of Land Registration, NFA, and the Attorney General, in 2021, over plots of land in Namanve Industrial Park.