Katikkiro Mayiga: State House Land Belongs to Kabaka But…

Buganda Kingdom Prime Minister Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga has spoken out on the status of the land on which part of the Ugandan State House is located.

Questions on the ownership of the land on which State House Uganda have persisted for about a decade. Measuring about 4.4 acres, the contested State House land is claimed by both Uganda Land Commission (ULC) and the Buganda Land Board (BLB).

There has also been lack of clarity on whether the Memorandum of Understanding signed between President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s central government and Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s Mengo government in August 2013 had listed the land among the properties that Kampala had agreed to return to Buganda alongside several pieces of land situated in towns and other properties that were formerly used as Mengo’s administrative offices.

In January 2017, Kabaka Mutebi wrote to Gen Museveni making it clear to the president that the land, Plot M.26, on which part of State House Uganda was located was Mengo’s. The Kabaka was of the view that Buganda Kingdom should lease out the land to the central government. However Gen Musevenu wanted Kampala to buy the said land from Mengo.

“I have noted the contents of your letter dated January 31, 2017 regarding plot M.26, land located at State House, Entebbe grounds. I will request the minister of Lands and the Attorney General to verify the ownership of the plot. If it is indeed part of the lands which were handed to His Highness in 2013, then my proposal is government buys it,” the president wrote to the king about eight weeks later.

“We do not like the idea of rent. It becomes a perpetual hemorrhage on the treasury. Owning such plots is better than leasing.”

Meanwhile, then Lands Minister Betty Amongi had in May 2017 written to President Museveni, making it clear that the 4.4 acres of land did not belong to Buganda Kingdom but to ULC.

“If the 2013 memorandum between the central government and the Kabaka of Buganda did mention Plot No. M.26 Entebbe as one of the properties that were returned to the Kabaka of Buganda, then it must have been included in error,” Amongi wrote to Gen Museveni in her letter dated May 16, 2017.

“Therefore, the current entry of proprietorship in Uganda Land Commission should be maintained on Freehold Register Volume 94 Folio 16, the land having been crown land. I hope, Your Excellency, this clarifies this matter. And we shall be available to provide historical records to prove the above facts.”

Now, Mayiga, who is currently celebrating a decade of service to Kabaka Mutebi as the Buganda Kingdom Prime Minister, has reiterated Mengo’s position on the land in question. Addressing reporters in Kampala on Monday, May 08, 2023, noted that Mengo was waiting for the Government Chief Valuer’s report on how much Kampala would pay Buganda Kingdom for the land.

“The president said that government was going to buy that land and the Government Valuer did his job. We are now awaiting his report. But the central government is not paying the rent,” said Mayiga. (These were the Katikkiro’s original words in Luganda: President yagamba ettaka eryo bagenda kuligula era Gavumenti valuer yabalirira era kati gwetulinze, naye obusuulu nabwo tebusasulwa.’)

Months ago, a Museveni government minister bashed the Kabaka over mailo land while the Buganda king fired back with a clear message to the Museveni government on mailo land and the quest for Federo. In May 2022, the Kabaka said that only God can save Buganda’s land and properties from powerful and well connected grabbers. (See Details Here, There and Over There).