Conan Businge and Darious Magara
11 November 2008
Kampala — THE Serulanda-Ssesamirembe probe commission has ordered state minister for lands Kasirivu Atwooki to find the missing documents of the Sango-bay estate.
Part of the estate was in 2006 given to Kagera Eco-Cities Ltd for development.
Kasirivu was testifying before the commission investigating the activities of the Serulanda Spiritual Foundation.
Kagera Eco-Cities is owned by the foundation, a religious sect that is said to preserve dead bodies.
The sect plans to turn 200 square miles of the land adjacent to Lake Victoria, into an autonomous free trade zone.
An Asian only identified as Patel, said 200square miles of the estate belongs to him. He owned the land before being expelled by the Idi Amin regime. Patel later returned and grows sugarcane and other crops on the estate.
The Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Kagera Eco-Cities to develop the land. But it does not have proof of re-possession of the land from the Asians.
"The commission is interested in having the documents of re-possession. There is a possibility that Patel was compensated, but utilised the loopholes in the system not to sign the certificate of re-possession.
You are expected to find the missing documents of Sango-bay estates" the probe team leader, Prof. Nelson Sewankambo, said.
"I have talked to Patel. He does not deny or confirm whether they were compensated by the Government" Kasirivu told the probe committee.
He said the Ministry of Finance was supposed to take custody of the documents but they were missing. "They are not necessarily supposed to be under my ministry."
Although Kasirivu wants part of the land to be leased to Kagera Eco-cities, he could not confirm to the commission whether the company could translate its development ideas into tangible projects.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
