Residents affected by the government's acquisition of 600 acres of land to expand Dei BioPharma Limited's pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing facility in Matugga, Wakiso District, have been promised fair and timely compensation before they vacate the land.
Attorney General Sam Mayanja told residents of Gombe Division, Nansana Municipality, at a community meeting on Friday that the land acquisition would follow constitutional procedures, as directed by the President, and that bona fide owners would be compensated before vacating the land.
"We want to assure your neighbours that they will be fully compensated in the shortest possible time," Mr Mayanja said.
Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba said the exercise will be handled directly between the government and affected landowners, and warned that middlemen will not be allowed to drag the process.
"This is now a government initiative and those affected should stop looking for [Dei BioPharma founder] Dr Magoola; government will make sure that everyone affected is adequately compensated," Ms Nabakooba said.
Ms Nabakooba, who was flanked by Mr Mayanja and Investments Minister Aminah Mukalazi, said lands ministry experts will start the process on Wednesday this week, with sensitisation and demarcation of the affected areas in Wabitembe, Kiryowa and Kigoogwa villages.
The meeting, also attended by Wakiso Resident District Commissioner Justice Mbabazi, who is also Dean of RDCs in the President's Office, and local leaders, follows a directive by President Museveni, which Ms Mukalazi announced to residents on September 18.
The President ordered the government to resettle families living around the campus to make way for its expansion.
Following that directive, leaders in Nansana Municipality and Gombe Division were instructed to halt construction within a specified radius of the plant. Technical officers were ordered to stop land transfers in the area.
Ms Mukalazi said President Museveni ordered the government to sort out the issue because international regulatory standards require buffer zones between pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and residential areas, which made the land acquisition necessary.
Dei BioPharma, founded by Ugandan scientist Dr Matthias Magoola, is developing an iconic manufacturing facility at Matugga to manufacture biological drugs and increase local production of advanced medicines, vaccines and specialised therapies for the Ugandan market and export.
Speaking at the community meeting, Dr Magoola said the extra land would allow the company to build new production lines, including exclusive oncology and API units.
He said it would also help the company meet the international manufacturing standards required to export medicines to markets such as Europe and the United States.
The company currently sits on 400 acres but needs 600 more acres to get international certification to produce these medicines.
Dr Magoola said a lack of international regulatory approvals has kept African manufacturers out of major donor-funded medicine programmes.
He said the United States spends billions of dollars on malaria, HIV and tuberculosis medicines for Africa but does not buy from African manufacturers because none on the continent holds US Food and Drug Administration approval and meets international standards.
Dr Magoola has filed more than 100 patents in the United States, of which more than 70 have been published.
Dei BioPharma has already been confirmed as a registered manufacturer on the Africa CDC pooled procurement platform for five years, starting September 1, 2026.
This allows it to supply medicines to African countries through the African Union's procurement system.
The US Food and Drug Administration has already nodded to its development plan for a cancer-drug biosimilar.
The Dei BioPharma Matugga Manufacturing Facility draws pharmaceutical-grade starch and industrial sugars from the company's cassava processing plant at Namasagali in Kamuli District.