KAMPALA- The Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Mr Richard Byarugaba, denied knowledge of the claimants of the Temangalo land which NSSF purchased from businessman Amos Nzeyi and his partner, former premier Amama Mbabazi.
Appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into Land matters on Thursday August 2, Mr Byarugaba said before NSSF acquired the 463.87 acres of the Temangalo land at Shs11b in 2008, they had done due diligence with the help of a reputable law firm, JB Byamugisha and Company Advocates.
Byaruhanga was defending himself a day after an Asian Family told the land probe that the disputed land belongs to them and accused Mr Nzeyi of selling their land to NSSF.
Mr Nazim Moosa on Wednesday told the Commission chaired by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire that his family acquired a 79-year-old lease on the disputed land in 1924, from the family of a one Daniel Mugwanya Kato under the name of Temangalo Tea Estate Ltd.
However, Mr Byarugaba said if they were aware of the encumbrances on the land, NSSF under the management of David Chadi Jamwa would not have bought it.
Mr Byarugaba nevertheless maintained that NSSF holds a genuine tittle for the land and that it has since been earmarked for construction of over 350 housing units to either be rented out or put on sale. NSSF bought the land at 24 million shillings per acre.
Mr Nazim on Wednesday said that efforts to repossess their land proved futile because the same had already been encroached on by prominent Businessman Nzeyi in 1992, who later sold it to NSSF in 2009 at 11billion shillings.
However shocking facts stated by Nazim before the Commission show that seven years after NSSF bought this land, a search done at the Land Registry in Wakiso in 2016 revealed that the said Land is still registered in the names of an Indian Company-Temangalo Tea Estate Ltd.
Meanwhile the Mugwanya Family which was also in attendance at the Commission’s Public Hearing at Wandegeya says it is aggrieved with NSSF illegally occupying their land and wants it back.
