Businessman Hamis Kiggundu aka Ham has dragged Wakiso District lands surveyor Mr Bashir Juma Kizito to the Surveyors Registration Board (SRB) and Institute of Surveyors of Uganda (ISU) over an alleged conflict of interest.
According to the complaint that was filed on September 19, Ham wants the board to take disciplinary action against Mr Juma Kizito. The official is on the spot over ownership of a 140-acre piece of land at Kigo, Wakiso District, which is being disputed by the Buganda Land Board (BLB) and Ham.
In May during the public hearing of BLB complaint by the commissioner of Land Registration, Mr Kizito introduced himself as a district staff surveyor, a representative of Buganda Land Board, and a lawful attorney of the Kabaka (King) of Buganda.
“Wakiso District Land Board as a public office granted us permission to obtain freehold land titles over former public land. Currently, Bashir [Kizito] works as the district staff surveyor of Wakiso and has actual notice of our freehold land titles and truly participated in the process of their creation by checking and okaying the sub-divisions that happened on July 14, 2020,” reads the complaint.
Through his company Kiham Enterprises Ltd, Ham said they discovered that Mr Kizito authored a survey report which the Kabaka is relying on in his quest to have their freehold titles cancelled.
“To date, it is again Bashir Juma Kizito on top of the cancellation game of our freehold certificates of titles for our land situated in Kigo. This is a gross conflict of interest…, the very reason we are presenting him before the two bodies that govern professional and practicing surveyors in the country,” the complaint states.
In a September 30 letter, the Institute of Surveyors of Uganda acknowledged receipt of the complaint.
“This case has been considered by the ISU disciplinary committee and decided that it is forwarded to the SRB for action as it involves a complaint concerning disciplinary action against a registered surveyor,” reads the response.
Last week, the Land Division of High Court issued an order stopping the commissioner for Land Registration from canceling the four land titles for Kiham Enterprises until determination of the pending case.
