Editor
The Rukungiri district chairperson LC 5 is on the spot for giving out the district land to the municipality without the council’s approval.
According to the Whistleblower who preferred enormity, the chairperson of LC 5 Mr. Geoffrey Kyomukama has on several occasions given out the district land without the council’s approval the recent one being the land that was given out last month.
According to the source, the chairman connived with the Municipal Authorities and the district heads of security to give out the land which the district speaker Mr. Turyamubona James opposed saying that it is becoming a habit that won’t be tolerated by the district chairman who knows how the law stipulates the process of giving out the district assets to find that he is the one acting against it. He said that for the district to give out any portion of land, the council must first sit and approve the process rather than one person deciding for the whole district council.
The source also revealed that the speaker has already summoned the chairman LC5 to explain in writing how he gave out this land without the knowledge of the council.
This is not the first time the Rukungiri district Authorities are accused of giving out the land without the approvalof the majority. In 2022 Rukungiri district Councilors exchanged bitterly following a disagreement with the District Executive Committee (DEC) on the decision they made to give free land to Rukungiri Municipality without their consent.
The proposal to donate 66ft x 89ft land was presented by Nahwera Santrinah, the woman councilor representing Buhunga and Ruhinda sub counties on Thursday, February 24th, 2022 who doubles as the District vice chairperson on behalf of the Executive during the district council meeting held at district council hall.
This created mixed reactions amongst the councilors who said that the District Executive Committee should stop deciding on behalf of the Council.
This followed another scenario that happened in 2009 wheretwo senior district officials were also accused of selling government land worth 27 million shillings to a telecommunications company.
The then LC5 chairperson Zedekia Karokora and Chief Administrative Officer Owen Rujumba allegedly ignored rules of the public procurement and disposal of government assets and illegally sold a 40,000 square-meter plot of land to Zain Telecommunications Company.
Zain used to land in Itemba Hills to erect a transmission mast.
The Rukungiri Secretary for Social Services, Emmy Ngabirano, said Zain made a formal request to lease the land for 48 years, but he, however, said there was no documentation to prove that the property was valued by the government or that the sale was approved by the district council.
The confusion over the Itemba Hills land lease comes barely a month after the Rukungiri District Council ordered the Chief Administrative Officer to recover 11.6 million shillings he unlawfully gave to Mr. Karokora. Karokora reportedly needed the money to pay for his wife’s treatment at Nairobi Hospital.
