President Museveni has okayed a proposal by Chinese company, Tian Tan Group to relocate Luzira Government Prison and the place be turned into a five start hotel.
In a July, 2022 letter to the Internal Affairs Minister, Gen Kahinda Otafiire, Museveni directed the minister to start negotiations with the Chinese company to ensure the plan is executed.
According to the plan, another piece of land suitable for the government maximum security prison will be identified somewhere else and Luzira will be relocated.
“I totally support this idea,” Museveni said in the letter.
Plans underway
With many thinking the plan could have been shelved, a February, 22 letter by the Internal Affairs Minister to the Attorney General seeking a consultative meeting on March 6 has indicated the plan is still underway.
“The Uganda Prisons Service have identified 3.5 square miles in Buikwe District, out of which they have agreed to purchase 1 square mile for the said relocation,” Otafiire said in the letter.
“The family of the Late Antonio Lutwama Kabogoza who owned the land have unfortunately never applied for letters of administration since the late passed on in 1928 although they have agreed as a family and beneficiaries to sell the said square mile to the Uganda Prison. In light of the current legal impasse on processing letters of administration for the old Buganda estates, the family lawyers have formed an opinion that they (Beneficiaries) can still sale their interest in the said land to the Uganda Prisons Service for the Prisons relocation.”
The consultative meeting is aimed at discussing whether it is legally possible to acquire the family land without letters of administration.
The relocation is expected to be done on a Public Private Partnership(PPP) arrangement where the Chinese investor will be given land for the five star hotel and in return he builds the new prison.
