City mayor face court over wetland plot

By Venex Watebawa

About 75 plots have been leased out to investors along the Mpanga close in Bugolobi to develop a fragile wetland along the Nakivubo channel.

The plots are part of the wetland which National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is threatening to take Kampala Mayor Ntege Ssebaggala to court if he does not get off he wetland in Bugolobi on which he is planting trees.

Thi is the wetland under contest between NEMA and Kampala city mayor. Counter accusation between NEMA Executive Director Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha and Kampala Mayor Hajji Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala may end them in court.

However, the circumstances surrounding the wetland are far beyond what NEMA was accusing the mayor.

Land titles displayed by Kampala mayor to our team indicate that this particular wetland is already leased out for development by the Uganda Land Commission and has given out titles to Nextel Limited a company owned by the house of DAWUDA.

The land titles signed by Mayanja Nkangi the chairman of Uganda Land Commission leased out 5 plots to Nextel Limited at a tune of 380 million shillings for a period of 99 years.

The minister for lands was at the site declined to comment over awarding land titles in a wetland saying he would first cross check if the titles were genuine.

According to Kampala mayor Ntege Ssebaggala, he says that there is no plot that can be gazetted in a wetland with out the consent of NEMA accusing them of double standards.

About 75 titles are said to have been awarded to different investors including the wetland owned by the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation. But NEMA director insist that Mayor Ssebaggala has a hidden agenda and he is planting trees in a disguise of reclaiming the wetland and will in turn claim ownership.