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The High Court in Tororo district has ordered the temporary removal of caveats on land designated for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project. Judge Henry Isabirye Kawesa issued the ruling, instructing the Commissioner of Land Registration to lift the caveats and attachment order, allowing the government to proceed with surveying, mutating, and transferring the land for the transport corridor.

The High Court in Tororo district has ordered the Commissioner of Land Registration to temporarily vacate the caveats imposed on the land, part of which has been identified for the construction of the multi-billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.

High Court judge Henry Isabirye Kawesa made the order in a ruling dated March 20, 2024.

The land is comprised in LRV 3581 folio 5 block 4 plot 124 at Malaba town in Tororo district.

The judge has also ordered the Commissioner of Land Registration to temporarily lift the order for attachment issued on behalf of Capt. Patrick Nelson Wamala Musoke regarding the land pending the survey, mutation, and transfer of the transport corridor by the Government.

“The applicant (Attorney General) is allowed to survey, mutate, and transfer the portion of transport corridor on land comprised in LRV 3581 folio 5 block 4 plot 124 at Malaba town in Tororo district for which it deposited compensation in court,” Kawesa ruled.

Because of the conflicting claims over the ownership of the land, the judge said the compensation money for the land shall remain in court until the determination of all the claimants’ interests in the land.

The respondents in the case who are battling over ownership of the land are Lunar Associates Limited, Dr John Mbadwe, Osuna Otwania, Great Lakes CFS (U) LTD, Leonard Maombo Imogir, Diana Aber, and Capt. Patrick Nelson Wamala Musoke.

The Attorney General was represented by state attorneys attached to the Mbale regional office.

Decision welcome

Perez Wamburu, the SGR project co-ordinator, has welcomed the court ruling revealing that construction works will commence before the end of this year.

Wamburu said at least 5,000 people are due for compensation and about 2,000 people have been compensated.

The SGR project, which is meant to connect Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, was launched eight years ago with an aim of reducing the high costs of transport associated with delays of goods in transit.

Background

Sometime back, the Government identified a portion of the said land for the SGR project.

It embarked on the legal process to acquire the land. However, before payment of the compensation to the beneficiaries, the Government discovered conflicting claims of ownership of the land between Lunar Associates Limited, Dr John Mbadwe, Osuna Otwania, and Great Lakes CFS (U) LTD, and the claims were subject to a pending suit at Mbale High Court.

This prompted the Government to institute an inter pleader proceeding and it was ordered to deposit the compensation amounting to shillings four billion on court account which it did on September 22, 2021.

An interpleader is a proceeding that aims to settle complaints from two or more parties that seek ownership of an asset that is controlled by a person overseeing the property being disputed over.

The parties later reached a consent agreement which was endorsed by the court on September 15, 2022.

The consent judgment decreed the ownership of the land to Great Lakes CFS (U) LTD but also detailed how the compensation was to be shared among the parties to the suit.

A consequential order was issued to the parties on February 10, 2023, to implement the terms of the consent agreement.

However, other claimants emerged and had lodged caveats on the land. There were also earlier proceedings by Capt. Musoke against Great Lakes CFS (U) LTD wherein the land was attached pending disposal of the main case and Great Lakes CFS (U) LTD had deposited a bank guarantee amounting to $504,830.

The order of attachment was registered as an encumbrance to the land which still subsists to date.

Several Government projects have been delayed by compensation delays due to conflicting claims.