Businessman Ben Kavuya and his lawyer Mwesigwa Rukutana after winning the case (PHOTO/Courtesy).
Court of Appeal has on Friday, November 25 delivered a ruling in a 714Hectares land case where a city lawyer had convinced Kabula residents that their land had been encroached upon by city businessman, Ben Kavuya.
The disputed land is 714Hectares is located in Kabula, Lyantondde district.
Mr Ben Kavuya had previously purchased 714Hectares in 1994 and consequently went to develop it as a commercial farm and upcountry home.
In 2015, its reported that City Lawyer Rwalinda Jambo Godfrey, Jambo & Company Advocates, travelled to Lyantondde and convinced the residents there that their land had been encroached upon.
When the registered owner, Ben Kavuya, was approached, he contracted a land valuer to ascertain the land ownership status. In his findings, the land valuer indicated that the title of the 714Hectares had overlapped its boundaries by 241Hecatres.
Mr Kavuya, consequently offered the overlapped land to the claimants with the developments he had undertaken on it, at no cost.
It is reported that Mr Rwalinda rejected the offer and lay claim to the entire 714Hectares, not the disputed 241Hectares. He suggested that Mr Kavuya purchases, afresh, the entire 714Hectares at the prevailing market rates.
Mr. Kavuya, in a bid to protect his farm and home, sought the intervention of the courts of justice. In a case filed in 2015, HCCS No. 77 of 2015, the High Court in Masaka ruled in favour of the claimants as mobilized by Mr Rwalinda and ordered for the cancellation of Mr. Kavuya’s title.
Mr Kavuya appealed the High Court decision in the Court of Appeal, case reference – Civil Appeal No. 224 of 2021. A panel of three justices from the Court of Appeal, Justices Christopher Madrama, Irene Mulyagonja and Cheborion Barishaki, in a ruling delivered this morning overturned the High Court’s decision.
In the Court of Appeal ruling, the Justices held that:
“The declarations and orders of the High Court are herby set aside and substituted with an order that Mr Kavuya retains registration and possession of his title/land to the extent measuring 472.3Hectares.”
The Commissioner of Land registration is directed to rectify Mr Kavuya’s title by adjusting it to remove the overlapped 242Hectares
The respondents (represented by the lawyer Rwalinda Jambo Godfrey) to pay the costs of the case in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Commenting after the delivery of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, Mr Kavuya welcomef the decision from the Court of Appeal.
“What was previously a travesty and miscarriage of justice has been undone.’
‘I have been a resident of Kabula from 1994, that an individual would try to evict my family and I on the basis of frivolity is unconscionable. I look forward to celebrating the holidays, as I have always done the past 27 years, with my fellow Kabula residents,’ he added.
An established Entrepreneur & Business mogul, Mr. Kavuya has always sought to contribute to the social and economic development of Lyantondde district.
In 2018, in a function presided over by the then Vice President, H.E Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, Mr. Kavuya donated a Health Cente 3 to Lyantondde, to supplement the Government’s efforts to improve health service delivery.
Relatedly Mr Kavuya built and donated another health centre 3 facility in Kebisoni, Rukungiri district in a deliberate effort to bring closer, health services in Western Uganda.
Mr. Ben Kavuya is the Chairman of East African Medical Vitals, Africa’s 1st surgical and medical gloves manufacturing factory. A Ugandan company that manufactures high quality, latex, powder-free medical gloves (examination and surgical), vital medical consumables in health facilities
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