East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA- Walking through the condemned Nakawa/Naguru housing estates, east of Kampala city, one can easily notice adamant tenants reluctant to leave.
Even after government assurance that the tenants will be given first priority to own/purchase the developed housing units, a big number of them have refused to vacate as the deadline passed last month. The tenants are expected to be evicted by the end of this week.
The government in May 2007 signed a Memorandum of Understanding that required the tenants to vacate the estates within a reasonable time not exceeding six months. This had followed several eviction notices to these former government workers to leave the estates.
After the first eviction notice, the tenants under their umbrella association Naguru-Nakawa Estates Residents Association (NNERA) took government to court over attempts to evict them. Even after court ruling and dismissal of their attempt to block the redevelopment on grounds that they had earlier signed an MOU with the government, the tenants have refused to leave.
"All these houses you see are occupied. They are full. You cannot easily get a rentable house," one of the residents told East African Business week.
Some of them were erecting makeshift business kiosks, others tilling land to plant in the rainy season, and others going about their daily chores.
The Naguru/Nakawa housing saga began in 2007, when the government contracted M/S Opecprime properties Ltd, a private limited liability company registered in England and Wales, to redevelop the estate into over 5,000 modern housing units to solve housing shortage in the city.
However, the project has since stalled due to the stand-off with tenants. The two estates in conflict consist of 1,747 dilapidated housing units occupying an area of 29 acres in Nakawa and 37 acres in Naguru a slum 2 km east of the city.
The government also signed an agreement with M/S Opecprime properties Ltd, to re-develop Naguru and Nakawa housing estates into a modern satellite town. The agreement that was signed in 2007, require the developer to provide modern public infrastructure, including roads, piped water, a sewerage system, electricity and other facilities.
The developer is also expected to build executive apartments, commercial blocks and institutional facilities such as schools, clinics and places of worship, using their own funds.
In order to pave the way for the redevelopment, the Ministry of Local Government undertook a number of activities to facilitate a smooth hand-over of the estate.