Businessman Ham sues Kabaka of Buganda, Lands Commissioner over Kigo Land Titles.

Businessman Hamis Kiggundu through Kiham Enterprises Limited has filed a civil appeal to sue the Kabaka of Buganda and The Commissioner Land Registration to the High Court challenging the decision and process that led to the cancellation of land titles for a 140-acre piece of land in Kigo, Wakiso district.

His Muwema and Co. Advocates, on behalf of Kiggundu filed a civil appeal number 85 of 2022 at the High Court on November 2, 2022, where he accuses the Commissioner of Land Registration, Baker Mugaino, of acting with “double standards and flouting the principles of impartiality and natural justice” to deliver a decision that favors the Kabaka of Buganda.

Kiggundu accuses the Kabaka of conniving with the commissioner to cancel his titles without following proper procedure. He wants this decision of the commissioner to be set aside urging that it was improper to cancel his titles on the basis of alleged procedural irregularities which were “neither pleaded nor proved at the public hearing”.

He bases his accusation on the fact that the commissioner ordered “cancellation of all [Kiggundu’s] freehold titles measuring 223 acres against a disclosed partial overlap of only 29.9 acres on the [Kabaka’s] mailo land…not ordering the cancellation of Kabaka’s mailo titles overlapping Kiggundu’s freehold land by 87.12 acres”.

The appeal received by Highis below:

Background:

The Ministry of Lands and Housing had earlier canceled the titles for the controversial piece of land that is being fought for city businessman Hamis Kiggundu of Ham Enterprises and Buganda government at Kigo in Wakiso district.

"By the powers conferred upon me under S.91 of the Land Act, having found that the certificate of titles comprised in Kyadondo Block 273 plots 23974, 23975, 23976, and 23977 subdivided from plot 23720 were illegally issued, I hereby order that the same be cancelled and expunged from the register book forthwith," Baker Mugaino, the acting commissioner for land registration at the Ministry of Lands and Housing said in a September, 6 directive.

Earlier this year, Buganda kingdom stopped Kiggundu from constructing a road between Mirembe Villas and Serena hotel in Kigo to gain access to the disputed land after he had claimed that he was working with the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to construct this road off Entebbe Expressway.

To this, Buganda Kingdom petitioned the Ministry of Lands seeking cancellation of freehold titles measuring over 140 acres overlapping Kabaka's mailo land that were in Ham's name.

In defense, Ham insisted that the land belongs to him.

"The area where our client's freehold titles are situated is part and parcel of the total lake area and constitutes former public land vested in the government pursuant to Article 244 (1) (a) of the Constitution," Ham's lawyers said.

In his directive the acting commissioner for land registration at the Ministry of Lands and Housing also ordered a joint boundary opening exercise to help ascertain the exact ownership of the contested land.

Following a cancellation hearing, the commissioner questioned the existence of a title on top of an already exiting one and consequently ordered a joint boundary opening exercise to ascertain the true ownership of this land conducted by surveyors from both parties.

"According to both majority and minority reports availed to the office of the commissioner land registration, it is deduced by both reports that there is an encroachment by the freehold titles on the Mailo titles... .Both reports agree that plots 23974, 23975, 23976 and 23977 owned by Ham Enterprises Limited encroach onto the Mailo Titles in plots 38, 87,99 and 110 owned by the Kabaka of Buganda. Therefore, it is questionable how a professional survey could have been undertaken to create on overlay on an already existing title. Without any doubt, such survey process was flawed and an illegality that resulted in double titling."

 The commissioner also noted that even if it was public land, Wakiso District Land Board illegally gave it out in freehold to Kiggundu since it is a wetland.