High Court rules Lusanja eviction was illegal

The Land Division of the High Court in Kampala has ruled that the eviction and demolition of structures in Lusanja following a court order by the Nabweru Chief Magistrates court was illegal.

Over 200 residents at -Lusanja village in Kasangati Town Council, Wakiso District were in October left homeless after Nabweru Chief Magistrate, Esther Nasambu, issued an eviction order on the contentious land but the Principal Judge ordered the Land Division to review the case.

On Friday, a ruling in the matter was delivered by the court’s deputy registrar, Samuel Emokor on behalf of Justice John Eudes Keitirima.

In his ruling, the High Court judge said the Nabweru Chief Magistrate didn’t have jurisdiction to order for an eviction and demolition of the structures.

“TheMagistrate Courts Act 2007 provides that a chief magistrate will shall have jurisdiction where the matter in dispute does not exceed Shs 50 million and shall have unlimited jurisdiction relating to conversion, damage to property of trespass,” Justice Keitirima said in his ruling.

He explained that in the Lusanja case, the chief magistrate failed to make a locus visit to determine the worth of the contentious property before making any further directions which was wrong and illegal.

“The value

of structures that were to be demolished had to be ascertained for the trial

magistrate to determine whether she had jurisdiction to order for their

demolition. It is therefore clear that the trial court had no jurisdiction to

handle the case.”

The High

Court judge also faulted businessman Medard Kiconco for failure to serve the

tenants on the disputed property with the eviction order adding that he ought

to have taken the burden of looking for them individually to be served before

any action is done.

“Even when

the process server of the trial court stated that he had served the

defendants(tenants) personally, in all his affidavits of service he indicated

that he served them with the plaintiff’s(Kiconco) agents. He however does not

mention the names of the agents who helped him identify the defendants (tenants),”the

judge ruled.

On whether

the eviction was done legally, the judge said since the trial magistrate didn’t

have jurisdiction, the tenants were evicted illegally.

“The execution (eviction) was a nullity as it was based on a decision that a decision that was issued by a court without competent jurisdiction. Determining the merits or demerits of the execution process would therefore be superfluous.”

“In all, I therefore find that the trial court exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it in law.”

The High

Court Land Division judge therefore set aside the earlier ruling and orders by

the Nabweru Chief Magistrates Court.

There were

jubilations by the evicted locals of Lusanja who attended court.