Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, the Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University says the kingdom is among the good friends of the university and in case of any issues, they would be able to amicably resolve the dispute.
Makerere University authorities are currently in talks with the Buganda Kingdom to settle a long-standing land dispute.
Land equivalent to 2 acres has been a subject of debate among the two key institutions for decades. There are reports that the Kingdom authorities had declined to renew the lease of land being occupied by the Law School and the Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) along Makerere Hill Road after it expired.
Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, the Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University says the kingdom is among the good friends of the university and in case of any issues, they would be able to amicably resolve the dispute.
“The School of Law has no issues with Buganda, no issues with Buganda. Buganda is our friend you know we are working together with them and if there are any issues, we discuss and we resolve them. We have no issues with the Kingdom of Buganda, they are our best friends,” says Professor Nawangwe.
URN has established that the University seeks to exchange the School of Law land with part of its Makindye land, which has key installations that the Kingdom is equally interested in.
According to Nawangwe, Makindye land has a house, which used to be the residence of Sir Albert Ruskin Cook, a British medical missionary in Uganda, who founded Mulago and Mengo Hospitals.
It is this same house that is believed to have been a birthplace of late Buganda’s 35th king, Ssekabaka Edward Muteesa II in 1924.
Makerere says it is more interested in the preservation of the house as a historical heritage and is already in talking terms with the Kingdom.
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According to Prof Nawangwe, the University has renovated the house where Ssekabaka Muteesa II lived as a student at Makerere in 1944 and will be turned into a museum.
Story by Davidson Ndyabahika
