The Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs (MoDVA) is currently involved in a land dispute with the defunct Fairland University in Jinja City.
The conflict revolves around Plot M149, a 10-acre piece of land overlooking the Senior Command and Staff College (SCSC) in Kimaka, Jinja Southern Division.
According to Prof Solomon Wakabi, the chairperson of the Board of Governors at Fairland University, the land was leased to the university for a period of 99 years in 2002 by the Jinja District Land Board, before the establishment of the army staff college.
Wakabi claims that the Ministry of Works and Transport later identified the land as suitable for a railway station and agreed to compensate the university to facilitate its relocation to a new campus in Masese, Walukuba.
However, the Ministry of Defence allegedly blocked the university’s access to the plot without any compensation or dialogue between 2003 and 2004.
In 2016/2017, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project identified the same land for its Jinja station and agreed to compensate the university. Despite this development, the MoDVA cordoned off the entire area, obstructing the university’s timely compensation by the SGR.
Efforts by Fairland University to engage with the Military Board chairperson, Permanent Secretary, and MoDVA throughout the past year have been unsuccessful, leading the university to consider legal action as a last resort.
In a letter to the Attorney General dated June 5, 2023, the university expressed its intention to pursue legal redress as MoDVA had ignored their proposal for dialogue to resolve the matter amicably.
The university’s compensation from the SGR project has been put on hold until the ownership dispute is resolved.
Brig Gen Felix Kulaigye, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, argued that the disputed land was acquired illegally and firmly stated that it belongs to the ministry. He welcomed the university’s decision to go to court, confident that the ministry would meet them there.
Fairland University, established as a private institution in 2001, was closed by the National Council for Higher Education in 2007 due to failure to meet the required standards.