RUKUNGIRI DISTRICT ON LOGGER HEADS WITH MUNICIPALITY OVER STADIUM OWNERSHIP

By Barak Tukashaba

In Rukungiri–

Remarkable misunderstandings hit the roof as the committee put up by Rukungiri district local council to oversee the management of Rukungiri main stadium failed to agree with the Municipal
council over the ownership of the land that accommodates the stadium.
Both parties have been claiming ownership of the stadium, which has created divergence between political and administrative sections of the two parties.
This follows the neglecting of maintenance of the stadium due to
failure to agree on whom to take full control and which have resulted the stadium becoming a haven for criminals.
Currently the stadium has poor sanitation, perimeter fence with worn out gates, no pavilion, it’s waterlogged during the rainy season, and animals are grazed in, lack of goal posts among others which makes the status of the stadium worries.
The Rukungiri main stadium committee formed by the district local council to oversee the management of stadium says that the construction of the stadium started in 1992.

The district was obliged to level the ground, construct the wall surrounding the stadium and compensating people whose plots were affected during the stadium construction. The district was entitled to collect some revenues in return.
The committee adds that usage of the stadium started 14th Oct 1999 both parties Rukungiri town council and the district but the conflicts came in 2003 after Rukungiri town council was elevated to municipality, the two parties disagreed on the sharing 50% of the money raising from it in an agreement that was signed then and since then it is the municipality that has been collecting money.
The parties have also failed to agree on who should compensate the

other because the both claim to have a big hand in Revenue collection and management of the stadium.
The district council meeting held on 24th Aug2017 resolved to invite

the government’s solicitor general, to intervene and decide who should take the control of the asset.
Andrewson Katebire, the Rukungiri district chairperson informed the

council that a committee to oversee the usage and management of the stadium that was set up found no evidence to involve municipality as a share holder.
He adds that district compensated the people that were staying where

the stadium was set up, constructed the wall surrounding it and local people contributed by paying a small tax which makes the district the most right full owner of the stadium.
Rukungiri main stadium is the only stadium in the center of the town

that caters for district and Municipality functions and all sorts of sports and games activities.

Source:www.mknewslink.com

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