Mukono High Court has cleared investors to continue using their land measuring over 1000 acres at Namanve Industrial Park in Mukono district.
A private citizen, Andrew Muyonga Mubiru, had sought the cancellation of 13 investors’ certificates of titles, but the court dismissed his bid today (Thursday, June 20, 2024).
Justice David Matovu ruled that the plots neither form part of the Namanve Central Forest Reserve nor lie in a protected wetland. “There is nothing to restore regarding the environment at Namanve Industrial Park and as such an eviction order cannot be issued against the investors,” the judge ruled.
Justice Matovu noted that in the absence of environmental degradation, one cannot claim that their right to a clean and healthy environment has been violated. He pointed out that Mubiru failed to prove that the said plots fall within the Namanve Central Forest Reserve and protected wetland, making it impossible to claim environmental degradation.
The judge delivered the ruling in the presence of Francis Ssebowa, Mubiru’s lawyer. Mubiru had sued the 13 investors along with the National Forestry Authority (NFA), the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), the Commissioner of Land Registration, and the Attorney General, who is the government’s principal legal adviser.
The investors and government institutions were represented by lawyers Rashid Babu, Esau Isingoma, Stanley Kanje, and Lydia Ntono.
In October last year, Mubiru filed a lawsuit against the 13 investors and the four government institutions, claiming that the government had illegally issued titles to the investors through the Commissioner of Land Registration.
The investors named in the lawsuit are Patel Hirji Sureshkumar, Luo Xiao Ming, Kanji Lalji Hirani, Mul-Kin Enterprises Limited, Tenghui Industrial Co-SMC Limited, Liberty ICD Limited, Narendrakumar Vithalbhai Patel, Joseph Emoit, Gerald Godfrey Ssambwa, Firoz Rajabali, Jamani Shaahid Ramzan Ali, and Redcorr Uganda Limited.
Mubiru argued that the investors were illegally granted titles on wetland and forest reserve land by the government.
In response, the investors contended that Mubiru had no standing to sue because he does not own property within Namanve Industrial Park. They also argued that Mubiru filed the lawsuit knowing it had no legal basis, with the intent to bother, annoy, embarrass, and cause legal expenses to them. Additionally, the investors mentioned that the issues surrounding Namanve Industrial Park had already been decided by the High Court in previous cases.
In 2022, Justice Batema, now at Iganga High Court, ruled that the certificates of titles for plots of land in Namanve Industrial Park were issued legally and prohibited the Commissioner of Land Registration from canceling them. Batema also ordered government officials to stop marking and managing land in compartments, stating that this practice is not legally recognized but was introduced for administrative purposes and cannot be captured on the existing official computerized land management and registration systems.
The court ruled that land measuring approximately 1000 acres no longer forms part of Namanve Forest Reserve. This decision nullified a letter from the NFA to Mubiru on April 29, 2022, which claimed that the plots were part of the Namanve Central Forest Reserve and wetland.
This judgment was part of a court matter filed by Capital Ventures International Limited against the Commissioner of Land Registration, NFA, and the Attorney General in 2021, concerning plots of land in Namanve Industrial Park.
