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KATIKKIRO: Joseph Ssemwogerere |
SIR— Mengo is sitting on a gold mine, which its leaders don’t seem to see. It is in real estate development, and I have two prime locations in mind, where housing schemes could start. I do not know the area of the Lubiri at Mmengo but, whatever its size, there is ample room for development.
All one needs to do is to shift the peripheral wall two hundred feet inside the palace and construct double storied structures for modern shops on the ground floor and office space on the first floor.
Hundreds of these could be constructed.
Similarly, a chain of storied blocks of shops and residential apartments could be constructed on a circular strip of land of 200 feet from the road around the grounds of the Kasubi Tombs and a peripheral wall put up behind the blocks to secure the royal grounds from trespassers.
If the Kabaka had ready plans for the proposed housing schemes, he would pay visits to rich kings such as the sultan of Brunei, the emperor of
Japan,
the kings of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the emirs of the United Arab Emirates, and ask for grants and donations for his kingdom. He would not return empty-handed.
Those, too, could be the sources of funds for completing the office block on the western wing of the Bulange and for acquiring some of the land on both sides of Kabakanjagala Road for the purpose of constructing modern shops and residential/office apartments for letting.
The income generated from the properties would go into a revolving fund for renovating Buganda’s cultural sites for tourism and for additional real estate investment in and around Kampala and in other towns of Buganda.
It is demeaning for great Buganda to continue begging for grants from the central government, with political strings attached, when the kingdom can proudly stand on its own feet and empower the Baganda financially with the ultimate objective of obtaining contributions from them in future.
Joe Sebb
owa
Kampala
Published on: Wednesday, 8th October, 2003 |
