Bitter ASSIA tenants have called on President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to institute an independent investigation and punish the Uganda Investment Authority ‘UIA’ Director General Robert Mukiza, Minister Evelyn Anite, and other staff of UIA in Mbarara City on the accusations of selling off their Gatsby Industrial Park.
Traders under the umbrella of Ankole Small Scale Industrial Association (ASSIA) have accused Mr Mukiza, his top UIA staff, and minister Anite of defying President Museveni’s order to return their land title of the park which was given out to their arch-rivals of Mbarara Gatsby small scale enterprise association limited ‘MGSSEAL’ as the new landlord.
Some of the leading protesting tenants in the park include; Esperanza Real Estate Investment, Active Distributors Limited, Living Uganda, Agribusiness, Real Estate Investments, Bontao [U] Limited, and Bold Energy Limited among others.
A few weeks ago, Min Evelyn Anite alongside Mukiza and his staff oversaw the handover of the parkland title to MGSSEAL picking it from ASSIA who have been rightful tenants for more than 15 years. This sparked conflicts and disagreements been the two warring groups.
One of the traders Vickie Kansiime revealed that ever since MGSSEAL was given the powers to manage the park, tenants have refused to recognize them as their new landlords which has forced MGSSEAL to issue letters and threats to to evict them from the industrial park, a thing they challenged and took it to higher authorities.
“We were subjected to intense pressure, intimidation and threats before we ran to President Museveni and court to get a temporary court injunction,” he said.
With unbearable threats, harassment and mistreatment, ASSIA tenants dashed to President Museveni who allowed them to express their predicament.
Bruised ASSIA tenants informed the President that there was connivance and acquaintance between MGSSEAL and UIA for their industrial park land title to be given away.
After the meeting, H.E Museveni ordered UIA to give back the land title to ASSIA to resume running the Industrial Park a directive complaints claim that Mukiza and Anite have defied to honor.
All prayers by ASSIA tenants to manage the industrial park have been turned down by UIA leadership despite several reminders.
It has been established that there are more than 1000 traders and 34 companies under ASSIA operating from Gatsby Industrial Park which is currently disgruntled by finance ministry decision.
The disputed group of MGSSEAL occupies 5.1 hectares of the contested land.
It is said that ASSIA got a loan to develop the Gatsby industrial park in Mbarara but was disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown. When the economy was fully opened, creditors started paying back on the loan of UGX2.09 Billion from the East African Development Bank (EADB). But their payment schedule was not appreciated by finance ministry Officials hence they had to look for an alternative company to give away ASSIA’s tenancy.
H.E. president Museveni directed the government through UIA to pay off the loan to secure the association’s property from attachment which up to now has not been done.
David Kamukama, lawyer for ASSIA has rushed to court challenging UIA for illegally giving out their Industrial Park to MGSSEAL.
Our efforts to talk to the finance ministry and UIA for a comment were futile by press time.
Watch the space