KAMPALA, Uganda | The High Court has ruled that Minister of State for Lands Sam Mayanja’s directive contained in a letter dated 23rd of January, 2025, addressed to the Resident District Commissioner of Kyankwanzi District, cancelling the Kanaba Estates Agencies land title, was improper and illegal.

The court presided over by Justice Karemani Jamson found out that the arrest of the managing director of the estates, Dr Jessy Rwakairu Turyahikayo, was illegal without granting them a bond and was a subject of judicial review, which was done irrationally and procedurally improperly because the minister failed to accord the applicant a fair hearing, which affected the decisions made by the court previously.

Justice Karemani Jamson further found out that the Kanaba and the managing directors’ charge of offences of trespass and failure to grant him a bond violated the rights of the arrested individuals and interfered with constitutional mandates of the ODDP and the Uganda Police Force.

The decision by the court stemmed from a case involving Kanaba Estates and one Mugelwa Isma and 85 other people , who petitioned the high court in 2020, claiming that Kanaba Estates and their manager Dr Jessy Rwakairu Turyahikayo had fraudulently occupied their land in Plot 4 Singo Block 746 Kiboga at Bweba, Kanamwera, Kiboga District, which is now Kyankwanzi District, measuring 1011.0, and they prayed to the court to cancel the land title.

Mubende High Court, now Kiboga High Court, ruled in favour of Kanaba Estates, and Isma and 85 other respondents appealed the decision in the Court of Appeal, where Kanaba Estates filed a cross appeal.

Kanaba Estates was dismayed when, on the 16th of January 2025, Isma and 85 other respondents in the company of senior presidential assistant attached to State House Phionah Barungi and other government officials convened in the area and held a public rally at the said land where they conducted harsh laws, that Kanaba Estates had obtained the land through fraud and the manager Dr. Turyahikayo should be arrested on sight and occupants should occupy the land, which affected the judgement and hearing of the case.

On the 23rd of January 2025, Isma and 85 respondents wrote a letter to the RDC Kyankwanzi and reiterated his illegal directives and copied the letter to several authorities without giving Kanaba Estates a fair hearing.

Kanaba Estates contended that they were not given a fair hearing with the decision of arriving at the implementation of the decision by the authorities disrupted the status quo of the pending application and the cross appeal, and that the application was greatly inconvenienced and had suffered tremendously; hence, they were entitled to general, aggravated and punitive damages.