Court Awards Tycoon Ssebalamu Ugx 500m over Wrongful Land Takeover

The High Court in Kampala has ordered the Government to pay city businessman John Ssebalamu a total of 550 million Shillings in compensation for his land that was wrongly declared public property for the proposed Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.

Ssebalamu, together with his companies Freedom Mart Ltd and Grapes Ltd, had legally purchased 20 plots in Lubaga, secured approval from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), and even begun excavation and delivered building materials.

But in September 2015, the Uganda Railway Corporation published a newspaper notice claiming he acquired the land fraudulently and warning the public against any transactions.

Two months later, Statutory Instrument No. 64 of 2015 officially gazetted the plots for the SGR’s eastern route. Faced with these notices, Ssebalamu halted construction while still servicing high-interest bank loans he had taken for the project. He sought more than 8 billion shillings in damages.

High Court Judge Aisha Naluzze Batala Justice Naluzze confirmed that Ssebalamu was the rightful owner and that government actions, placing a caveat emptor notice (buyer beware), on Ssebalamu’s 20 plots and later listing them as public land in the statutory instrument, effectively stalled his planned multi-billion-shilling shopping mall and deprived him of income.

“It’s due to the existence of the said caveat emptor notice and the statutory instrument that the plaintiffs stopped the construction of a shopping mall on the suit land. It is to the finding of this court that the defendant interfered with the suit land due to the issuance of the caveat emptor notice and the statutory instrument, which affected the developments on the land.

The judge also faulted the government for failing to follow the legal process of compulsory land acquisition, including proper valuation and timely compensation, which resulted in loss and inconvenience for Ssebalamu.

“From 2015, when the said caveat emptor and the statutory instrument were issued, the government ought to have taken a step towards compulsorily acquiring the suit land, for example, having the suit land valued by the chief government valuer to ascertain how much compensation the plaintiffs were entitled to. 

In her decision, she awarded 500 million Shillings in general damages and 50 million Shillings in punitive damages, with interest of ten per cent per year until the full amount is paid, and also ordered the government to cover the costs of the suit.