09/12/2026
~ T.K Media UG
In 2006, I was a journalist with UBC-TV. We were removed from the 15 acres of prime land at Nakasero belonging to UBC, which was then given out to private developers to construct a hotel to host CHOGM delegates in 2007.
That same year, Shimon demonstration school and teachers’ college was also demolished to pave way for a CHOGM hotel on the 15 acre piece of land.
CHOGM came and went, but the said hotels were not in place for the mentioned purpose, and controversy surrounded the land for years.
In 2011, Gov’t forcefully evicted over 1750 families from the Naguru-Nakawa housing estate to make room for a “modern satellite city” project on the 162 acres. That “development” doesn’t exist to-date.
These, and many more controversial land give-aways come to mind when we hear of plans to give away the city square for another “development”.
City square is one of the very few green spaces left in the city, so to learn that it is to be replaced with a private business structure is bizarre!
Joel Ssenyonyi
(LOP)