ARUA CITY TO SUE UPDF ENGINEERING BRIGADE OVER NON COMPLIANCE

By Dramadri Federick

Arua City

Arua city council has threatened to drug Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) Engineering brigade that is undertaking the construction of a 4-star hotel at the former UPDF barracks to court over violation of Building control Act 2013.

In a March 18, 2018 letter, President Yoweri Museveni directed the then Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Betty Amongi, to allocate government land measuring 3.52 Hectares on plot 2-20 Enyau road, Arua city to Taban Idro, the managing director of Acacia Place Limited for the construction of a park hotel in Arua.

This is after an agreement to relocate the UPDF officers to an equivalent alternative land outside the city center.

As per the Building Control Act 2013, all developers in urban authorities like cities and municipalities are obliged to submit their plans to the physical planning unit of the local governments for approval before they are allowed to commence constructions.

Wadri Sam Nyakua the Mayor of Arua city revealed that without presenting the building plans, the UPDF engineering brigade proved arrogant even when the city has contestations over the land ownership.

The Mayor directed the Deputy Town Clerk to write on behalf the city council a letter of intention to sue the UPDF Engineering Brigade over their actions.

“You need to instruct the legal officer to write formally on our behalf to halt the whole thing, the construction is being done by the Engineering Brigade of the UPDF and they are doing things with impunity, first of all they came and started grading land, they have started putting the wall fence, the physical planning committee raised red flag and now they have been given enforcement notice, as I speak now the work is continuing. That is not the character of the UPDF that we know, they should stop doing things with Impunity because it pushes us to the wall.” 

Nyakua’s submission was seconded by councilors who further stressed that if there are requests of pending the ongoing construction works is not granted, they will sue the UPDF engineering brigade as an entity and Taban Idro separately since they have breached the building control Act and the physical planning act.

Responding to the concerns, the Chief of Joint Staff Political Commissar –UPDF Henry Matsiko who is also the Chairperson Monitoring and Evaluation Committee UPDF Engineering Brigade admits that the actions of the Engineers is uncalled for, and that he will give a better feedback after consultations.

“You were reporting to the right person, after here I am ringing the commander Engineering Brigade to get explanation on the indiscipline, because as an Engineer he knows that there’s a building Act. For an Engineer to start building without presenting plans, really?”

According to Idro, the hotel project which is expected to cost between US$4-5 million once complete will provide employment to over 200 individuals.