The opposition National Unity Platform-NUP party leadership has opposed a plan by President Yoweri Museveni to award one Square mile of land for the construction of a futuristic city by R&B American artiste Aliaume Damala Badara Thiam alias Akon.
President Museveni gifted Akon and his wife Rozina Negusei the land when they visited Uganda and met him along with other high-profile government officials.
During the meetings, the singer and government officials discussed the issue of investing in Uganda, and was subsequently taken around the country using the presidential helicopter to establish an area where he would build his city.
His ambitious vision is to build a city powered by a cryptocurrency called Akoin like in Senegal.
However, Ugandans had mixed reactions upon hearing that the singer had been gifted with such land. Now, the NUP spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi says that although they have nothing personal against Akon, there is a disturbing trend where the government gives out public land without following any known procedures.
He pointed at the public land in Naguru-Nakawa estates, land that was initially hosting the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation in Nakasero, and the former Shimon Demonstration School in Kampala, among others, that was in the past given out in a similar manner and it ends up serving purposes other than those it was appropriated for.
Ssenyonyi says NUP party is warry about Akon building a city in Uganda yet he has failed to build one in his home country of Senegal.
