Established after the collapse of the East African Community (EAC) in 1977, Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) has a total track length network of 1,266km and 4,050.711 hectares of land in various parts of the country. The land and properties are situated along the railway line; Kampala–Malaba line, Port Bell Line, Kampala-Kasese line, Busoga Loop line, and Tororo-Pakwach line.
Through dubious and fraudulent activities, several pieces of the corporation’s land have been encroached on throughout the entire network, especially in the urban areas of Kampala and Jinja.
In November 2021, the Uganda Railways Workers’ Union asked parliament to investigate the alleged mismanagement of URC by its leaders, who they accused of causing financial losses. Last year, the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) started questioning top leaders of the corporation.
According to the newly released COSASE report, land boards in Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Gulu, Nwoya, etc and the Uganda Land Commission created illegal leases on URC land and several requests to cancel the said leases have gone unheeded, hence making it difficult for the corporation to recover its land.
The findings indicate that both Kampala International University (KIU) and the proprietors of Mestil hotel were involved in fraudulent activities in the process of extending a lease and acquiring land on which the mall was built.
The report found that Janet Kobusingye, the proprietor of Mestil hotel and residences, did not pay premium or ground rent for the land that was allocated to her but her lease was extended from 10 years to 49 years then to 99 years with no premium or ground rent paid for the 89 years.
“The extension of Ms. Kobusingye’s lease is contrary to the law and the terms of the consent judgment because it did not waive the requirement for payment of premium and ground rent on public land or the need for due process to be followed in the extension from the initial grant of a lease of 10 years,” the report partly reads.
In 2011, the government cancelled the land titles for local investors in the Naguru-Nakawa estate to allow UK-based company, OPEC Prime Properties Limited, to build a satellite city. The local investors challenged the legality of the transaction and the government agreed to settle out of court and compensate them with land elsewhere in the city.
URC land in Nsambya was identified for that purpose. The Nsambya land, formerly owned by URC, was transferred to Uganda Land Commission (ULC) with an assurance that the government would pay for it.
However, URC has been persistently engaging the ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development for compensation to the sum of Shs 69.5 billion to no avail. Even though the presidential directive and the cabinet memo indicated only 32.35 acres to be allocated to the above beneficiaries, 72.78 acres were allocated, bringing an over-allocation of 40.43 acres without authorization.
Some beneficiaries that were included in the presidential directive and cabinet memo were denied land for example; National Library of Uganda (two acres), Nakawa Disabled Vocational Training Institute (0.6 acres), Quakers (0.43 acres), and Church of Uganda (0.39 acres).
“Some entities which were not meant to be beneficiaries were allocated land. For example, Kampala International University (KIU), which did not appear in the cabinet memo and presidential directive, was allocated 14 acres for the development of the university. A shopping mall (Arena mall) was eventually built on the said land,” according to the report.
The committee, however, recommended that the Uganda Land Commission and the Privatization Unit should be held responsible for the anomalies that transpired in the allocation of URC land at Nsambya.
FRAUD IN PURCHASING LOCOMOTIVES
According to the committee, URC offices purchased four locomotives in August 2021 at a cost of Shs 48 billion but since they arrived, they had been parked in the workshop with no work. The URC Workers Union revealed that the locomotives were imported without knowing that they were too long for the triangles and not able to turn.
“The Uganda railway line of 50 to 80 pounds would not be able to handle the weight of the new locomotives, which required that it runs on a 90-pound railway line. The motors, which propel the locomotives are very low and that they were non-operational on Uganda rail lines,” the report found.
The committee revealed that the URC select committee recommended that the company purchases locomotives, which are six years old at Shs 36 billion; however, locomotives that were eight years old costing Shs 48 billion were procured and hence leading to Shs 12 billion loss.
“The management of URC that was involved in this procurement should be held responsible for flouting procurement regulations and the unplanned costs incurred on modifications of railway triangles in Jinja and Tororo and the U-turn in Kampala,” the committee recommended.
inarticle} inarticle}