Eng. Wamburu, argued that the land on which the Kasoli Housing project sits is government land that was used as security to obtain a credit facility from DFCU Bank Ltd and that under the Public Finance and Management Act 2015, there was a need to obtain a no-objection from the Ministry of Finance to guarantee the mortgage using a government asset.
Officials from the Ministry of Works and Transport have cited inconsistencies
in the DFCU Bank and Kasoli Community loan facility.
Eng. Canon Perez Wamburu the SGR Project Coordinator and his deputy Eng.
Emmanuel Ssemakula appeared before Parliament’s committee of Physical
Infrastructure on Thursday to explain the delayed compensation of 250 families
in Tororo for land that they used as collateral to secure a loan from DFCU
Bank.
The residents under the Kasoli Tenants SACCO Ltd recently petitioned parliament
to help halt the ongoing eviction orders and force SGR to either compensate the
residents so that they pay back DFCU or Government writes a letter of
commitment that they would pay off the loan.
These acquired a loan in 2013 to construct 250 housing units under the Kasoli
Housing Project on 5.5 hectares of land. However, they stopped financing a 2.5
billion Shillings loan facility after receiving a letter from the Standard
Gauge Railway (SGR) informing them of an intention to acquire the same land to
construct a railway line.
Information before the committee indicates that the residents expected the
government, through the SGR project, to compensate them for the land and in
turn, pay off the bank loan.
But the compensation has never materialized, and they are now
facing an impending eviction from the land, by the Bank. SGR on March 1, 2016,
wrote to the residents informing them of their intention to acquire land for
the construction of the SGR station, which affected the Kasoli Housing project
area.
The residents have so far been served with two notices of default through
Sebalu and Lule Advocates, representing DFCU Bank on March 17, 2020, and
November 12, 2020. Also, eviction notices were served by Bemug Strict
Auctioneers and Court bailiffs on April 23, 2021, and September 19, 2021,
giving them only 30 days to clear all the outstanding loans or vacate the
property within 14-days from the date of service despite the loan term being
15-years.
Eng. Wamburu, argued that the land on which the Kasoli Housing project sits is
government land that was used as security to obtain a credit facility from DFCU
Bank Ltd and that under the Public Finance and Management Act 2015, there was a
need to obtain a no-objection from the Ministry of Finance to guarantee the
mortgage using a government asset.
“To date, we have not seen such clearance, which puts the legality of the
credit facility in question,” said Canon Wamburu.
He also said that there is no information on the current outstanding mortgage
sum despite SGR engagement with DFCU Bank and the Kasoli Tenants SACCO to avail
them with a repayment schedule to enable their valuers to get a better of the
issue and determine how many people to be compensated.
“To date, DFCU Bank and the SACCO have either deliberately and or wilfully
refused to avail us with such documentation. It is alleged that only 2 people
out of 250 paid up their mortgage obligation but we have not obtained evidence
of the same,” Wamburu added.
SGR also says that despite the original construction plan of 250 houses for the
Housing project, only 92 houses have been constructed and that on examination
of the land title, 167 plots were identified and this would not be able to
accommodate the 250 houses as planned in the document.
Wamburu also reported that further scrutiny of the strip map of the area by SGR
indicated that some houses would overlap but despite these findings, the
Housing project representatives were pushing for compensation of all the 250
would-be beneficiaries.
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Wamburu told MPs that these and other findings complicated the identification
of those who should be compensated and put the SGR project at crossroads as to
who and how to compensate the intended beneficiaries of the housing project.
“Discussions with the Chief Government Valuer indicated that the Kasoli Housing
Project report should not be submitted without a clear list of beneficiaries of
the whole project. We have tried to engage the Director of Housing in the
Ministry of Lands on the issue to no avail,” Wamburu noted.
He however assured MPs that they continue to work towards ensuring that the
rightful project affected persons are duly compensated to enable SGR to acquire
land without any encumbrance.
Roland Ndyomugyenyi, Rukiga County MP said that there is a deliberate effort by
government agencies to fail compensation of Kasoli residents.
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David Kalubanga, the Committee Chairperson demanded that SGR avails all vital
information regarding meetings held with the different parties saying that his
committee does not want to go into the gymnastics of the matter.
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The committee is scheduled to meet the political heads in the Ministry of Works
and Transport and the Ministry of Lands in their next meeting.
