Spenah Beach in Entebbe is finally no more after the police, together with local authorities in Entebbe municipality finally evicted John Asiimwe, an errant tenant who had refused to vacate the place, even after defaulting to pay rent for two years.
Spenah Beach initially belonged to former Entebbe Mayor Stephen Kabuye, who rented it out to Asiimwe in 2017 for a period of five years ending in 2021.
However, when Asiimwe defaulted rent for two years, Kabuye decided to sell the property to an investor, although the new proprietor never took over its possession because of resistance from Asiimwe and his cronies.
This is because despite knowing that the property had been sold to another proprietor, Asiimwe and his workers stubbornly refused to vacate the facility.
Through his lawyer Kenneth Paul Kakande, the new proprietor undertook all the legal channels of taking possession of Spenah Beach, only to meet lots of resistance from Asiimwe.
At first Asiimwe claimed the land belonged to Entebbe Municipality but when the lawyers wrote to the Town Clerk, Mr. Charles Magumba he refuted Asiimwe’s claims in a letter dated September 20th, 2022, by asserting that the Municipality had no interest in the said property whatsoever.
So, after securing an eviction order from court, the new proprietor, together with his lawyers and employees, went to Spenah Beach on Friday October 14th, 2022, to evict Asiimwe and his workers from the property.
However, when they reached the facility, they were subjected to severe violence by a squad of soldiers attached to the Special Forces Command, who not only clobbered them but also beat up the journalists who had gone to cover the eviction.
The violence meted out to the new proprietors and the journalists prompted them to return to court to secure a temporary injunction, which they used to finally evict Asiimwe and his workers from Spenah Beach.
Speaking about the eviction, Mr. Steven Ssebugwawo Binyansi, the area LC Chairman Bugonga Ward, Entebbe Municipality, said that; “We have been present at the scene as local leaders in the area to witness the peaceful eviction of the tenants who were illegally occupying Spenah Beach.
Unfortunately, they intentionally defaulted payment of rent for a whole two years. So, after exerting a lot of pressure on the illegal tenants through legal means, we managed to overcome their resistance.”
He added that; “Following the exercise and the successful eviction of the illegal tenants, the genuine owners of the property are now free to take it over and operate it as they wish.”
On his part, Counsel Paul Kenneth Kakande, the lawyer for the investor who bought Spenah Beach from its former owner Stephen Kabuye, said that they managed to evict the illegal occupants following a temporary injunction they secured from court, as they wait for the hearing of the case which they filed against Asiimwe and his co-accused.
“We recently got a Court Order in the form of a temporary injunction, which prevented the former tenant of Spenah Beach from interfering with the quiet possession of the registered proprietor. When we got that order we went to the Police Headquarters and they cleared the order. We wrote to the Aviation Police Commandant to put into practice the court order. And by that letter which was written by the Inspector General of Government, the police have come today to make sure that the registered proprietor takes over possession of the property.”
He added that; “There were a few items that had been left at the property by the former tenant but these have today been taken by said tenant and or his representatives, meaning that there is nothing formerly owned by them here anymore. The owner of the property is now protected by the law and business is going on as usual.
Kakande concluded by saying Spenah Beach has since changed ownership and management and urged all partiers who would like to visit the facility to do so starting this weekend.
