The Uganda Law Society—ULS has started colleting evidence from victims of the January 22nd eviction exercise in Luzira in which one person was shot dead and five others injured.
John Onyango, a resident of Railway Zone in Port Bell, Luzira was shot dead in the indiscriminate shooting that ensued after the eviction exercise turned violent.
Kampala Capital City Authority director for physical planning, George Agaba and his bodyguard Santos Komakech are still facing murder charges. Agaba was leading the botched eviction exercise.
A group of 56 residents of Luzira on Wednesday met the ULS legal team to seek legal advice and redress against the KCCA director for physical planning.
ULA through David Mpanga of David FK Mpanga Advocates is preparing to offer legal services.
Led by Fred Baguma, the chairman of the committee put in place to liaise with the lawyers representing the victims, the residents say they need to be compensated by KCCA for damages and loss of property.
The developers of the land from which the residents were being evicted, initially paid some of the injured victims 80,000 shillings for hospital bills and 30,000 shillings to move but now the residents say the want to be compensated.
//Cue in: “Those who have been…”
Cue out: “…looking at compensation.”//
Fred Mpanga revealed that another review meeting has been scheduled for the June 4th to update the residents on how much evidence has been gathered before the case is lodged in court.
Mpanga revealed that on February 7th, the residents issued a 45 day notice to sue to KCCA, the Attorney General, Agaba and Makmot and by March 26th the notice had elapsed.
However, they have not received any response from all the parties. Some of the residents also raised issues of bank loans they had got to finance their businesses which they can no longer pay back.
//Cue in: “The first round that was…”
Cue out: “…of what the loss was.”//
Mpanga clarified that they shall write a standard letter to the banks informing them of their financial difficulty, but that it was not a guarantee that they would be given relief by the banks.
The residents were also advised to gather all the tenancy agreement documents regarding their businesses, hospital bills and documents among others.
He adds that lawyers are also still carrying out investigations on whether there was an eviction notice issued out to the residents since the area LC 1 chairman Turinawe Willy says he did not receive the notice as alleged by KCCA officials.
//Cue in: “If they act together…”
Cue out:… “investigations are still going on.”//
