REVEALED! Who ate what in UETCL’S Shs28bn Luzira-Namanve transmission line saga

By our reporter

At the prompting of the President who he says directed him to inquire into circumstances under which titles continue to be issued in favor of private individuals owning land in swamps and wetlands, State Minister for Lands Dr. Sam Mayanja has continued to expose a huge scandal involving a syndicate of officials at different government ministries.

Mayanja says that as a result of this criminal connivance, the GoU has already lost Shs28bn paying compensation to access and use what already is its land. Dr. Mayanja says it’s a huge syndicate that has had to involve officials at the Attorney General’s chambers, Finance Ministry, his own Ministry of Lands, the courts of law and Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL). Mayanja says he is doing all this (taking clear risk which could even prompt members of the thieving cabal to bump him off) because he is sure the President is behind him.

That he is making all these interventions to fulfill the President’s directive requiring the Lands Ministry to save the taxpayers money while amplifying acceleration of large government projects by ensuring that speculators don’t wrongfully acquire land in wetlands which they proceed to use to claim billions in compensation or else they run to court seeking to block large government infrastructure projects.

The latest scandal Mayanja has vowed to go down exposing relates to the 132KV power transmission line (from Namanve to Luzira passing through Bweyogerere, Namboole, Bugolobi etc) which UETCL has been tasked to accomplish using both GoU funding and of donors. Mayanja says the power transmission project should ordinarily cost the GoU much less if it’s not for the connivance of powerful government officials who keep creating fictitious PAPs who proceed to fraudulently extract a lot of money from the government as compensation for them to surrender the land for the project. Mayanja says there is no doubt officials at UETCL know these fictitious PAPs don’t deserve even a coin in compensation because the Namanve-Luzira stretch is a wetland (and therefore public land) belonging to the GoU in whose name they are criminally paying out these billions.

HOW THE DEAL WAS SEALED

On the afternoon of Thursday 4th November 2021, a meeting was held in the Attorney General Kiwanuka Kiryowa’s Board Room at the Ministry of Justice offices along Parliamentary Avenue. In attendance were the officials from Magna Advocates, the Lands Ministry, some members of UETCL top management and their external lawyers operating under a law firm called K & K Advocates. On agenda for discussion was the long running land dispute that saw a number of entities becoming aggrieved against UETCL which they proceeded to drag in Court. Led by Asuman Irunga and Kellen Karemera, the more than 10 entities and natural persons had filed a multiplicity of suits (HCCS No. 258, 256, 263 & 271 all of 2017) protesting compulsory acquisition of their land by the GoU to enable UETCL construct the 132KV Namanve/Nantabulirirwa-Luzira transmission line. Their consolidated demand was Shs34,336,159,003 besides damages and court costs. They were also demanding for interest on the subject matter claiming they had unjustifiably been deprived of their land as the GoU went about land acquisition for Namanve-Luzira transmission line. Comprising of partners like Joseph Kyazze, the Kanjokya Street-based Magna Advocates attended the Kiryowa meeting in their capacity as the dully nominated attorneys of the plaintiffs just like the representatives of K & K Advocates equally attended as lawyers for UETCL which had been sued besides the AG and Commissioner Land Registration. Having considered the Shs34bn claim to be such a high exposure risk for the GoU, Kiryowa (who inherited the dispute from his predecessors having come from private practice) wanted to avoid greater costs and expense to his employer the GoU in case the matter went through full litigation processes. He rightly appreciated the fact that the taxpayers risked paying much more (once the damages, interest and court costs were to be factored in) and the all-important transmission project being delayed for an eternity. “We considered the magnitude of exposure to the government and UETCL in the event judgment is entered against them and the benefits of settlement of the suit,” explained the AG. He considered the plaintiffs’ claim to be one that the GoU and UETCL couldn’t easily circumvent or run away from because the Shs34bn being claimed had been verified and endorsed by the government chief valuer as authentic. It was 6 years since the dispute began and at 15% per annum, the GoU risked paying huge chunks of money in interest in case the wrangling remained unresolved. Having been deprived and constrained from dealing with their land or transacting on it since 2016, the plaintiffs had suffered extreme inconvenience all of which would entitle them to some atonement in general damages if litigation continued to be prolonged. The AG also reflected on the costs of the suit where the subject matter was as high as Shs34,336,159,003.

During that meeting, KK and his entire team from the AG’s chambers was able to build consensus between Magna Advocates who represented the plaintiffs and UETCL through their lawyers (K & K Advocates) who were equally present at the meeting. On behalf of their clients, lawyers from Magna Advocates agreed to make a number of concessions including diminishing or discounting their claim from the original Shs34,336,159,003 to Shs28,852,785,000. This would extinguish their claim in its finality and totality.

It was also agreed that once the agreed Shs28bn was promptly paid, the plaintiffs would denounce the interest, damages and the suit costs they had originally demanded. In return, the plaintiffs (who the lands Minister Sam Mayanja now says weren’t entitled to anything because the suit land was a wetland belonging to the GoU) also agreed to immediately permit UETCL (the owner of the project) full access to the land so that the 132KV Namanve-Luzira transmission line gets expeditiously constructed after being delayed for all those years.

After the meeting, a consent judgment was jointly drawn by lawyers from the AG chambers, Magna Advocates, K & K Advocates and those representing the Commissioner Land Registration. It was this consent judgment that the optionless UETCL CEO/MD George Rwabajungu was guided by government lawyers to sign up to before proceeding to sign off Shs28,852,785,000 which was immediately transferred from UETCL’s Fixed Deposit Escrow Account in Absa Bank onto the account of Magna Advocates which subsequently disbursed the same to the plaintiffs after taking off their legal and professional fees. The consent judgment (and the resultant court order HCMA No. 1486/2018 & 1573/2019) imposed different obligations to the different parties involved including requiring Absa Bank to pass on all the money to the Magna Advocates bank account while leaving only the accrued interest for UETCL which has been maintaining K & K Advocates as their external lawyers for quite some time. On receiving the money, the plaintiffs agreed to surrender all their land titles (whose issuance Minister Mayanja is now disputing on grounds this was a wetland belonging to GoU) to UETCL to facilitate the establishment of the Namanve-Luzira transmission line. UETCL was made to agree to surrender back the residue titles relating to the residue land that will remain unaffected after the 132KV project has been completed.

Also in our possession is one of the letters in which the AG Kiwanuka Kiryowa inadvertently explains why this consent judgment (which the Lands Minister Sam Mayanja wants set aside on grounds the land was GoU’s) was the best thing that could be done to placate the GoU under the circumstances of the case. Dated 5th November 2021, Kiwanuka Kiryowa’s letter was addressed to UETCL CEO/MD George Rwabajungu who proceeded to part with or sign off the Shs28,852,785,000, a transaction Dr. Sam Mayanja wants the IGG to inquire into on grounds this was nugatory expenditure since the Namanve-Luzira project land was already government’s.

WHO ATE WHAT?

From the consent judgment (a copy of which this publication has exclusively obtained), it’s clear who picked how much cash and on whose behalf off the lump sum of Shs28,852,785,000 which the optionless Rwabajungu parted with. The beneficiaries are disclosed to include Asuman Irunga, Siraj Tumwine Tumusiime, Kellen Kalemera, Aisha Mulungi, Irene Kwera (through Obed Mwebesa), Barbara Nalubega, Bob Kanaabi, Augustine Rutaganda, Huudu Ssemuga, Rogers Kataali (through lawful attorney Dennis Sserugo) and Emmanuel Gasana (through his lawful attorney John Ssebyala). Yet that isn’t all. The beneficiaries’ list also has five (5) juridical persons namely Logic Real Estates & Developers Ltd, Lala Apartments Ltd, Trussnet (U) Ltd, Kwagala Real Estates Ltd and Floriculture & Organic Products Ltd.