By Angel Lubowa
KAMPALA
Tension and fear is brewing in Luzira next to women’s prison as former rebels , convicts and their children swear to die over their land after what they called a move supported by powerful people take over their land.
” We cannot allow our project and land given to us in 1997 to be grabbed by connected people colluding with ministry of lands officials. The prisoners service gave this project with a purpose , rotary club helped construct this workshop and it’s now under government supervision, how then can any one come disguising as an investor to put us away? We shall fight them down for this is our livelihood ” said one of the members as they demonstrated before police and Kampala RCC, Asiimwe Jane Muhindo .
This was during a hot meeting held Thursday June 5th, 2025 at the contested land located Luzira prison’s parish , Village 9 in Nakawa division.
The group of former prisoners , ex rebels and their families under their group called United Reformed Persons Association (UREPA) say that the land measuring to approximately 1.6 acres was given to them in 1997 but that some people secretly got a lease on the same land without their knowledge or permission .
They are accusing Emmaus Foundation and Emmaus Foundation Investment a private company to have secured a lease through weird means.
But Emmaus Foundation and Emmaus Foundation Investment who were represented by their legal team headed by Martin Baligye said they are the rightful owners and even showed a court order to that effect.
However UREPA members who were bathed in anger and pain said the court order was a manipulation and were moving to block it and were asking for any help to keep their servival.
During the meeting which was engulfed with shouting, demonstrations and tension as police headed by deputy RPC ,Godfrey Ninsiima Kampala threatened to arrest the unruly, the claimant accused lands officials, connected families and politicians to be behind the move.
They vowed not to leave the land despite Kampala RCC , guidance to live by the current court division which allegedly said that the developer had entitlement. They rejected her call for them to allow the construction of a partial perimeter wall.
Demonstrations continued even as the RCC closed the late evening meeting as it was going past working hours and drove away with police.
The ex prisoners accused her of siding with developers .
Initially and later over phone, Mrs Muhindo advised the ex prisoners to heed court guidance.
” When you chose the legal path which is courts, you go with what it directs or you petition the decision which you find unpleasant other than resorting to violence.
You ( they) can refer to court probably as the registered w
owner seeks eviction and either oppose or settle for atleast saving the small portion of land where their workshops are located”.
The meeting followed a previous meeting where police leadership from Jinja road read the court order but which still the ex prisoners opposed vehemently.
BACK GROUND
UREPA and Karago Construction and Engineering Limited went to the High court accusing government officials for frudently giving away their land.
They sued a charitable group known as Emmaus Foundation Limited, and a local company, Emmaus Foundation Investments (U) Limited in addition to the Uganda Land Commission and the commissioner for Land Registration, saying they were involved in the illegal land transfer.
Court documents show that on June 13, 1997, the Rotary Club of Kampala West wrote a letter to Mr Joseph A.A. Etima, who was the commissioner of Prisons at the time, asking for a piece of land to build a carpentry workshop for reformed ex-prisoners. Five days later, on June 18, 1997, Mr Etima responded in writing and allocated the land to the ex-prisoners, as requested. “On 28 August, 1997, the first defendant (Emmaus Foundation Ltd) was contracted to construct the workshop (a laboratory workshop) for the second plaintiff (UREPA) on the suit land,” the court documents read in part.
They added: “All the contractual money was paid and the first defendant (Emmaus Foundation Limited), through its founder Fr John Scalabrini, handed over the workshop to UREPA, which is operational up to date. The second plaintiff (UREPA) continued in possession and use of the land up to date as sitting tenants.”
However, along the way, Uganda Prisons Service wrote two letters—one on April 14, 2022, and another on August 31, 2023—to the Uganda Land Commission.
In the letters, they complained that land titles had been created in the names of Emmaus Foundation and Emmaus Foundation Investment (U) Ltd without getting a certificate of no objection from the Prisons Service. They asked that the titles be cancelled and taken back. “Upon notice of illegal and fraudulent lease granted to the first (Emmaus Foundation Ltd) and later transferred to the second defendant (Emmaus Foundation Investments), the second plaintiff (UREPA) lodged a caveat on the suit land to restrain further transactions,” the court documents aver.
The ex-prisoners have listed several actions they believe were fraudulent by Emmaus Foundation and Emmaus Foundation Investment. These include applying for a lease on the land and registering interest in it, falsely telling the Uganda Land Commission that they were already in possession of the land, claiming they had been given the land by the President, and secretly trying to take over the land—even after being hired by the ex-prisoners to build a workshop on it.
The ex-prisoners now want the court to declare that the land was donated to them by Uganda Prisons Service and that they have occupied it without anyone else living there since 1994. They also want the court to rule that the act of Emmaus Foundation Investment leasing the land to Emmaus Foundation Ltd, and later leasing it back to the ex-prisoners, without permission from Uganda Prisons, was fraudulent and should be cancelled.
In addition, they are asking the court to issue a permanent order stopping the defendants and their agents from ever disturbing their peaceful use and control of the land.
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