Broken windows. Leaking roofs. Prime land lying idle while billions in rent go uncollected. That was the picture Ugandan lawmakers walked into when they crossed into Kenya this week to inspect the government’s property empire in Mombasa — and it looked nothing like the well-run portfolio management had described.
Members of Parliament on the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), led by chairperson and Kyadondo East MP Muwada Nkunyingi, physically stormed the sites managed by Uganda Property Holdings Limited (UPHL) to test the damning observations in Auditor General Edward Akol’s report for the 2024/25 financial year. What they found on the ground was decay — buildings with shattered windows and leaking roofs, some still being dangled before prospective tenants, even as the same properties fetch a fraction of what they should.
UPHL sits on a portfolio worth a staggering Shs213 billion: 13 properties in Uganda valued at Shs81 billion, 24 in Kenya worth Shs96 billion and four in London valued at Shs36 billion. It holds the crown jewels of assets once owned by the defunct Lint Marketing Board, Coffee Marketing Board and Transocean Uganda. Yet on the ground, the empire is crumbling — and the money is bleeding out.
At the heart of the scandal is Shs4.048 billion in rent that tenant Unifreight Cargo Handling Limited has refused to pay since 2022. Akol has written the debt off in all but name, branding it doubtful and unlikely to ever be recovered, and warning that the festering uncertainty is rotting UPHL’s books from the inside and exposing a company that cannot collect what it is owed. The plot thickened when Nkunyingi revealed management’s explanation: they claim the finance ministry told them the President wanted the debt wiped clean. But the Solicitor General has slammed the brakes on that, ruling that no such waiver can happen anywhere except on the floor of Parliament. The committee now says it will drag the proposed write-off into a full cost-benefit interrogation to establish exactly what the taxpayer stands to lose.
The rent is not the only leak. The audit also exposed a tax liability festering because the Uganda Revenue Authority has dragged its feet on recognising foreign tax credits, saddling UPHL with prolonged obligations. And in a fresh twist, Nkunyingi disclosed that some of the most valuable plots — including land in Bugolobi — were quietly leased and subleased under presidential directives on terms that stopped UPHL from charging a premium, even as the company clung to reversionary interests.
Facing the heat was Managing Director Wilbert Mugume, at the helm since August 2019 and now in his second and final term. Cornered over the state of the assets, Mugume pointed the finger squarely at chronic underfunding, admitting a full overhaul was simply beyond the company’s reach, and begging for at least Shs50 billion to rescue the rotting buildings and unlock the idle land.
Even the lawmakers conceded the company has been starved. Elgon North MP Gerald Nangoli noted the bitter irony of UPHL being ordered to guard billions in assets on a government handout of less than Shs100 million, and pledged to push Parliament to finally capitalise the company. Others warned that unless the crumbling prime properties are redeveloped, Uganda will keep watching a Shs213 billion empire earn a pittance — money that should be flowing into the Consolidated Fund as dividends.
Mugume insisted every property under UPHL’s custody is titled and unencumbered. But with doubtful billions, a stalled tax bill and prime land lying fallow, the committee is weighing that assurance against the wreckage the Auditor General has laid bare.
