Mercy Kainobwisho the Registrar General of the Uganda Registration Service Bureau (URSB) has defied the orders issued by the maverick Lands Junior Minister Dr Sam Mayanja on de-registering Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s Buganda Land Board from the list of companies legally operating in the country.
The revelation was revealed by Charles Ouma the deputy Solicitor General in his affidavit where he was defending the Attorney General’s chambers in an application in which Kabaka Mutebi and Buganda Land Board were seeking a Court Order stopping the implementation of the Orders issued by Minister Mayanja on Kyadondo Block 273 Plot 5 land at Kaazi in Wakiso district.
In his evidence, Ouma told Court that even though Mayanja being a cabinet minister has the right to issue directives to technocrats working under his supervision, the technocrats must follow the laws of the country when executing the given directives.
They further noted that it is the reason why even though the minister wrote to the Registrar General directing her to de-register Buganda Land Board, she declined and advised him to first secure a Court Order to guide her in executing his directives.
More Read
He insisted that the same thing was going to be done by the Commissioner Land Registration when the same minister issued directives to cancel all the land titles at Kaazi registered in Kabaka Mutebi’s name claiming that he obtained them illegally.
“What the Applicants intended to do would affect gag cabinet ministers from undertaking their duties, because by the nature of their work, ministers receive all manner of requests to handle any manner of problems all the time,” Ouma stated.
However, in his ruling, Justice Bonny Isaac Teko overruled Ouma explaining that even though the Registrar General was very careful on handling the minister’s orders, there might be other technocrats who can over-zealously quickly implement the directives from the minister without understanding whether the directives are illegal or not thinking that when placed to task to explain why they committed the illegality, they would defend themselves that they were implementing a directive issued by a person with more power than them.
He explained that Kabaka Mutebi and Buganda Land Board needsled protection noting that the minister, being a lawyer used his knowledge to misled technocrats.
He gave the example of the document the minister wrote to the Registrar General directing him to de-register Buganda Land Board.
He divulged that if the Registrar General was not sober to refer the matter to courts of law, she would have committed a mistake.
The judge explained that Kabaka and Buganda Land Board were very likely to suffer if Court did not protect them with a Court Order on Kaazi land until the big question of whether the properties returned to Buganda Kingdom were returned to Kabaka Mutebi as the leader of the institution or Mutebi as a person.
However, the Solicitor General assured Court that president Museveni’s government returned the said properties to Kabaka in good faith because he showed that he is ready to protect the Kingdom interests so that no one is allowed to play with them.
He added that the minister and Phiona Birungi the Special Presidential Assistant On Special Duties will not suffer much if the orders issued are placed on hold because they are public servants who issue orders and execute them in their official capacities and not in their personal capacities.
He added that the duo at any time can be transferred to another public office by the appointing authority leaving troubles behind.
The judge insisted that court had to intervene to save the situation because it can create turmoil in the country once the directive is implemented without careful scrutiny.
He disclosed that the order Mayanja issued to de-register Buganda Land Board was going to create social and economic turmoil in Buganda because Buganda Land Board has issued a number of leases on its land to several individuals and removing it would send the panic among members of the public who spent their hard earened money securing the leases.
“The directives touched on a sensitive matter of land and ownership of land. The directives if implemented would have far reaching legal and Constitutional implications going as far as 1900 Buganda Agreement or 1939 when Kabaka Chwa 2 died. The directives touch the eye ball of the current Kabaka and the Buganda Kingdom’s economic mainstay land,” the judge stated.
He noted that the minister was very serious on issuing the directives that he even directed Birungi to follow up and make sure that the directives are being executed. It is the reason why individuals have started grading the land without the permission of the landlord because they have an order issued by the minister.
Kabaka Mutebi’s evidence was provided to Court through Bashir Kizito Juma who has the powers of Attorney to sign and swear an affidavit in his absence. The Commissioner land registration was represented and the Attorney General was represented by George Kalemera and Mark Muwonge.
However, minister Mayanja and Birungi were not represented in court and did not defend themselves.
