Kyadondo East legislator, Robert Kyagulanyi, has lost the land where his building is located in Kamwokya, Kampala after the title holders sold the contested land to a Gabonese investor, believed to be a brother to Gabon’s ruling President
Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, who built the single-storeyed Semakokiro Plaza on the land, is among the 393 residents who have for 16 years been facing eviction by M/s Pearl Hope Investments Limited, which has the title to the land.
According to an Agreement of Sale of Land seen by this publication, M/s Pearl Hope Investments, owner of the disputed land, measuring about 26 acres and located on Block 213 Plots 20-78, while other plots are marked as 1979, 20186, and 1977, have been sold to Mr Ulrich Anass Bongo Ngoyi.
“In consideration of $15m (Fifteen million United States Dollars) the vendor agrees to sell and the purchaser agrees to purchase the Leasehold interest which will be converted out of a Mailo interest (measuring about 26 acres of land for a period of 99 years’ renewable on agreed Terms and conditions for another period of 99 years after the expiration of the initial lease,” the agreement of sale of land reads in part.
Bongo is represented by M/S EUSTERA INTERNATIONAL FZE, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In March, M/s Pearl Hope Investments Limited, through Lubega, notified Bobi Wine and others in separate letters about the planned eviction on the contested land. Bobi Wine’s famed Ssemakokiro Plaza sits on the same land.
At least 400 families in the ghetto zones of Mulimira, Kisenyi and Old Kira Road are under threat of eviction.
The owners insist that Bobi Wine bought part of the land from children of late Gladys Nanyonga, who was a tenant on the land.
They explained that when the artiste was putting up the building, they warned him to stop but he refused.
They say that while they will pay off all other squatters on the land, Bobi Wine will not be compensated as he is not squatting on the land and he is instead a trespasser.
The crisis in March was sparked off by a formal complaint by Pearl Hope Investments Limited through Lubega and Company Advocates in a letter dated March 11, notifying Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and others over land trespass and to respond to the letter within 21 days.
“You went ahead and demolished the old premises thereon. You erected Ssemakokiro Plaza on the land wherein you have your recording studios and other activities. As you may appreciate, you are purely a trespasser on our client’s land, our client on purely humanitarian grounds gives you a notice of 7 days within which you should remove your developments as they constitute a nuisance therein,” the letter reads in part.
According to the lawyer, Bobi Wine bought the land from a one Gladys Nanyonga without the consent of the land lord.
A copy of the land title of the area seen by this website shows that Musa Musisi as the first registered owner of the land in 1957. He later transferred it to Joseph Kagumba in 1996 before Kasoma Samuel acquired it in 2003 and then Pearl Hope Investments in 2006.
