KAMPALA – Kampala Catholic Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has petitioned President Museveni, accusing three lawyers of demanding unfair sums of money in regard to the compensation of the Church land at Entebbe Airport acquired by government and rent arrears of Nsambya Land which is occupied by police.
In a May 29 letter to the President, Archbishop Lwanga accuses lawyers Ebert Byenkya, Julius Galisonga and Gordon Bainomugisha of demanding to a tune of Shs9.6b as consultancy fees, which is more than 50% of the Shs17b the archdiocese received from the government for the two pieces of land.
According to the prelate, the lawyers deceived the church into believing that they can help government recover the payment from government.
“As you may recall in our meeting of November 27, 2019 at
State House Entebbe where I told you about lawyers who
misguided me into signing instructions for them as the only option I had for the Archdiocese to get any payment from the Government in regard to the compensation of the Church land at Entebbe Airport…. the Arrears of Nsambya Land which Police has been occupying for years now,” Archibishop Lwanga says in the letter.
“On learning the truth from Your Excellency, that it is strictly Government Officials who handle Presidential Directives I retracted their Instructions stopping them from pursuing the matter further. To my surprise while I was abroad on official duties, Mr Ebert Byenkya took advantage of the situation and convinced the Attorney General that the church would lose out if the instructions were not reinstated which was not true. He even went ahead and wrote to the Minister of Lands misguiding her to transfer the church funds to Byenkya, Kihika and Co Advocates Beneficiary Bank,” he adds.
Archbishop Lwanga said though he paid Byenkya Shs25% of the said sum, he has come back and demanding another Shs960b.
He also accuses Gordon Bainomugisha of demanding Shs3.4b from the church over the same matter.
According to Archbishop, if the church pays all these monies to the lawyers, the church will remain with nothing for its development purposes.
