Court orders pastor off NSSF land in Lubowa
Kampala- There is relief at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) after the High Court, Land Division ruled in their favour on Tuesday.
Court ordered Pastor David Kyambadde of the Resurrection Life Church be evicted from the land and that structures on the land be demolished.
“The defendant (Kyambadde) is a trespasser and unlawfully occupying the plaintiff’s (NSSF) land. It is hereby ordered that the defendant pays Shs100 million to the plaintiff as general damages for trespass on the land,” reads the ruling.
NSSF sued Kyambadde after he ignored a notice to vacate the land, and constructing structures that included a church, school, and basketball and volleyball courts. NSSF asked court to order eviction, demolition of the illegal structures and asked for damages for trespass.
In October 2013, NSSF announced plans to construct a 2,741-unit housing estate on the land at $400m for 10 years.
NSSF alleged that Kyambadde had encroached on at least 2.17 acres of the 565 acres NSSF purchased from the National Housing and Construction Company, Uganda Company Holdings Limited and Mr Peter Emusugut in 2003.
In the ruling by Justice Andrew K. Bashaija, court noted that Kyambadde had failed to provide the existence of his “kibanja interest” on the customary land he claims he acquired by being a bona-fide occupant.
A bona fide occupant of land is a person who acquired rights to land after they occupied without any contestation for more than 12 years before the 1995 Constitution came into force.
No evidence
Kyambadde, who will be appealing the ruling, noted he had acquired the land from his mother through a title deed in 1995 before she died. He said this is land his family had occupied since the 1950s and was paying ground rent to the family of Prince Yusuf Suuna Kiwewa (RIP), the land owner.
On this point, the Judge noted that the records presented in court point to NSSF being the rightful owner of the land.
“It is therefore a case of the defendant trying to wrongfully and illegally lay claim on land over his boundary line, and just using witnesses with merely general knowledge of the area of his claim. The defendant has dismally failed the test as a bona fide occupant on the suit land,” Justice Bashaija noted.
Section 29 of the Land Act gives bon fide occupants legal rights over land.
NSSF managing director Richard Byarugaba said: “This judgment sends a message to whoever had any plans to encroach on our land that we will not stand by.”
Other interested parties
The land also has interests from other parties. More than 30 relatives of the late Buganda Kingdom prince Yusuf Suuna Kiwewa and Princess Kasalina Nkinzi had accused NSSF of snatching this land.
These claims were dismissed by Ms Sarah Kulata Basangwa, the commissioner for land registration in the Ministry of Lands.
In response to the dismissal of the claims, Mr Peter Mulira, the executioner of Prince Kiwewa’s will wrote in the Daily Monitor that “NSSF title cannot be right because it is a freehold title on mailo land.”