Buganda Premier Charles Peter Mayiga has asked the government to expedite the payment of 215 billion Shillings to the cultural institution for the property that was taken over by the government after the abolition of cultural institutions.
The money also covers compensation for land and accumulated rent arrears since 1967. In February 2019, President Yoweri Museveni held a meeting with the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II to review an earlier Memorandum of Understanding between the Kingdom and the Central Government.
The President said then that they had agreed that all pending issues involving Kingdom property, land and financial arrears be resolved soon. This meeting followed an earlier interface on April 15, 2014, in which the President handed some land titles of the Kingdom Land to the Katikkiro.
But according to Mayiga, a number of titles under the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding signed by President Yoweri Museveni and Kabaka Mutebi are yet to be returned to the Kingdom. At least 293 land titles for land on which sub-county offices in the Kingdom sit and others have been returned so far.
“215 billion Shillings is already confirmed by the government and another 500 billion is yet to be confirmed involving compensation of destroyed property, rent arrears, land and others,” Mayiga told a Lukiiko sitting at Bulange-Mengo today.
Mayiga says that several other land titles are yet to be given back to the Kingdom, while those earlier returned, remain stuck in government processes of reverting them under the Kingdom ownership.
Mayiga added that during the 2019 meeting between the President and the Kabaka, the Head of State committed that a debt of 51 billion Shillings which had been confirmed by then would be paid in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial years.
He said that part of this money was payment for the land on which King Fahd Plaza stands on Kampala Road. This was valued at 49 billion, Shillings, of which the government has only paid 13 billion Shillings.
Mayiga appealed to the President and other government officials to handle the pending issues saying that the Kingdom has been patient. He added that the continued failure by the government to fulfil its pledges is one of the reasons that the Kingdom subjects shun the ruling government.
He equally asked the government to address other issues distressing Ugandans especially in the Central region citing land grabbing, unemployment, poor health services, corruption and others.
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By URN
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