Justice Musa Ssekaana of the High Court in Kampala has dismissed an application seeking to subdivide a Church of Uganda certificate of land title to create a separate plot of land for business tycoon Charles Mbire of Polilina Estates.
The land in question, located on Akii Bua Road in Kampala, was donated to the Church of Uganda by then-President Idi Amin Dada in 1974, and measures approximately 0.558 hectares.
In his ruling, Justice Ssekaana declined the Church of Uganda’s prayer to cancel the title in respect of the land comprised in Plot M180 off Akii Bua Road, as well as rejecting an application demanding that the Commissioner of Land enters the correct acreage in Church of Uganda’s title as 0.558 hectares.
The Justice said that granting the Church’s request would not be possible, as there were “serious issues to be determined in a proper suit to determine the rights of the parties and correct the alleged errors in a suit to conclusively deal with the challenges on the land.”
According to court documents, the Church of Uganda entered into possession of the land but was never transferred into its name until October 18, 2006.
However, the certificate of title did not indicate the size or acreage of the land in question, which prompted the Church of Uganda in 2018 to request the Commissioner Land Registration to indicate on the certificate of title the correct size of 0.558 hectares.
After surveying the property, the Church of Uganda confirmed the size of the land comprising Plot 21 Akii Bua Road as 0.558 hectares and requested the Minister of Lands to intervene and enter the correct size of land.
The claim by the Church of Uganda was further boosted by a report by the Commissioner for Surveys & Mapping, which showed that deed plans for Plot M180 had never been issued, nor were any instructions for survey altering of Plot 21 ever issued.
Despite this, the Commissioner Land Registration ruled that the Church should surrender its title to enable subdivision of the property by creating a title for Polina Estates, which conducted a public hearing and confirmed that Polina Estates’ title had been created erroneously.
However, in his ruling, Justice Ssekaana argued that there were still unresolved issues, and thus the request could not be granted.