Mabirizi seeks injunction against Buganda land board on ground rent collection

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Lawyer Male Mabirizi has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking an interim order to block the mass ground rent collection exercise by the Buganda Land Board.

The exercise which was launched on Friday requires all tenants on the Kabaka’s land to pay rent as set by the district land boards. 

But Mabirizi contends that the actions of the Kabaka of Buganda amounts to abuse of court process since there is a pending case challenging the same in the Supreme Court. 

Mabirizi is challenging the decision by the Court of Appeal Judges led by Egonda Ntende who overturned the orders given by the High Court Judge Patricia Basaza.

Justice Basaza had in 2017 directed the Kabaka to provide Buganda Land Board bank statements from the year 1993 to help in backing up Mabirizi’s application filed in 2016 where he challenged the collection of land fees, commonly known as Busuulu.

Basaza had also ordered the Kabaka to provide the register and details of all the people occupying the official mailo land which was also quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Mabirizi in his interim application states that the Kabaka on Friday last week through the Minister responsible for Lands, Mariam Nasejje Mayanja launched mass ground rent collection effective November, 18th, 2019.  

He notes that while at the launch, the Minister said it was compulsory for every settler to either pay the ground rent or face the consequences of the law.

According to Mabirizi, the on-going collection of rent is aimed at rendering his Supreme Court Appeal irrelevant since the matters in controversy rotate around the purported ownership of more than 360 square miles of Official Mailo land.

“As one of the beneficiaries of the trust, my grandfather’s Ali Musisi Lunyomo, Sirim Mabirizi and a host of other clan mates were buried at Kasana Kyaggwe, which is part of this land and no amount of damages can compensate the respondent’s assumption of ownership of that land”, reads the document.

Mabirizi says that no amount of damages can compensate him because of the assumptions of ownership of the land in question.

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