By Sarah Mukisa
Mengo
The special presidential Assistant in charge of General Duties, Ms Phiona Barungi has intervened in the five-year-old dispute in Bulange, Lubaga Division where a tenant erroneously assumed the ownership of the stroyed house he once rented.
The matter which has dragged on for years is between the family of Racheal Nampewo and her former husband Simeon Sengendo
and on one hand and their tenant Clestine Kaliisa .
Kalisa who lived on the matrimony house of the family occupying the ground floor as the family sub rented it, leaving the occupying the first floor allegedly took.control of the full house when the family got a misunderstanding and court separated them.
According to.the civil suit case No 0968 of 2022, the family questions the wrongful lower courts decisions by junior courts which had messed up matters of the house ownership issues.
According to Nampewo the house in question belongs to her and her estranged husband but after they got separated by the High court Justice Lydia
Mugambe after the husband started allegedly using drugs.
Court also ordered the family to sell off the house property and share accordingly between the husband, wife 30 percent each, respectively and the other share goes to their children.
They started looking for potential buyers but when they didn't find one in time, the wife took her children to live with some where else for safety because the husband had become violent , but on coming back found Kalisa occupying the upper rooms her family resided.
Kalisa said her that had bought the shares of the husband on the alleged house while his wife was away the issue which the wife refused to acknowledge saying Sengendo had no powers whatsoever and sold in error.
" I have regularly been manhandled, threatened and have my properties destroyed by attackers hired by the Kalisa who claimed am no longer the owner of the house boasting that they bought off the shares from my former husband. However, even the husband denies any reasonable transactions " said Nampewo.
Battle started from there and the Kalisa has been a regular detainee in Old Kampala after the Kalisa side collaborated with various police officers who allegedly appeared to be favouring the defendant.
" The matter escalated and all efforts by me were being disturbed by police, Kampala RCC agents and some rogue court staff.
I have been retained multiple times at Old Kampala and I have been threatened with guns many times. This is my matrimonial home a gift from my husband's family after our wedding and I can’t let it be stolen like that" Nampewo narrated.
But Sengendo , told the meeting that while the Kaliisa family said they bought his shares, this is not true. He said while he was under influence of some sort, they used his poor situations to steal his property feeding him on alcohol and drugged chips and threw him in the a small room within their fence and during that process they took over his house.
He said they took him to.Butabika mental hospital to qualify him for a mad person so that they can take over his property.
" They took me to Butabika so that am assumed a mad person. This deal was engineered by one phone dealer called Hilary Ssempala and Godfrey Ssebaggala who connived with Kaliisa to rob me. However, am not a mad person i only got disturbed after i used drugs and alcohol and this is what i told doctors in Butabika and they didnot admit me " said Sengendo said.
Explaining for Kaliisa, his wife Valerie Kabane said her husband paid money to the Sengendo and signed.
Addressing the matter at the locus meeting attended by the partials and some residents, Barungi said they came for fact findings rotating around the court order that was issued by court to remove the tenant from the landlord’s house.
.His lawywer Rogers Ntale said that there is an ordered of execution that Kalisa shouldn’t leave the house.
But the Ntale said the defendants had filed an application calling for a stay of execution saying that until that is settled the Kaliisa cannot be moved out of the house.
However, Nampewo’s lawyer, Briton Gumisiriza said, stay of execution cannot be viable when Kalisa failed to fulfill the to pay the 30m in a month as courts ‘s order. He added that Kalisa was ordered to vacate and is pending for civil imprisonment for a duration of 6 months
Barungi insisted that the court order at hand cannot be dishonoured just because there is a pending appeal of any sort. She said the court order at hand was valid and Kalisa family had to move out of the house immediately after all his already living in contempt.
Making a final instruction, Barungi said she cannot entertain impunity and there is no way a tenant can steal the house of his former landlord in broad day light. She said the Kalisa has no powers of any sort to steal the house and the house must be returned to the former owners.
She said the Kalisa family should prepare to leave the house immediately and that she had to find out and confirm what she came to find out saying Nampewo and Sengendo owned the house legally and the house should return to them soon. She advised Kalisa not to wait but to leave or she will come back to throw them out .
Other speakers like the RCCs office Lubaga Moses Ariho and the DISO advised the defendants to find room and finish the matter out of personal understanding because all indicators show that Kalisa was dupping the petitioners.
