Residents of Railway Zone in Port Bell have started building new structures along the road almost a week after bungled eviction exercise left one person dead and five others injured.
On Sunday, George Agaba, the KCCA director in charge of physical planning led a team of law enforcement officers in an eviction exercise that turned bloody claiming the life of John Onyango. Agaba’s bodyguard, Santos Komakech Makmot reportedly shot at angry residents who were throwing stones at KCCA officials. Komakech was on Wednesday charged with murder and remanded to Luzira prisons till February 8th.
Fred Baguma Baryomumeisho, one of the residents says the erection of new structures is inevitable considering the number of stranded families in need of accommodation as a result of the demolition of their structures on Sunday.
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Baryomumeisho claims that as one of the first residents in the area, he acquired his piece of land in 1990 and then Kampala City Council authorized him to redevelop the area.
He says in 1990 the entire 60-metre-strip of land between Uganda Railways and Uganda Breweries was covered with Napier grass for animal grazing.
Baryomumeisho told Uganda Radio Network that incase of any eviction, KCCA land should have considered compensating the now more than 40 sitting tenants in the area.
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Elizabeth Barungi, another resident says that this is not the first time KCCA has moved to evict the residents in this area. She says three evictions had been made before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2007 and the Sunday eviction was the second in a period of two years.
But Peter Kaujju, the KCCA spokesman describes the ongoing erection of new structures as illegal. He also dismissed compensation claims saying that staying in an area for long does not guarantee them legal occupancy of the land.
He says as part of KCCA mandate, the institution shall go ahead and demolish illegal structures in road reserves in the ongoing clean up of the city.
