Justice David Matovu the Mukono High Court judge has dismissed with costs an application filed by flamboyant city businessman Godfrey Kirumira who also doubles as the Namibian honorary consul against top police bosses and the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka.

Kirumira filed the application arising from the main suit against Liberty ICD Limited who he accused of grabbing his kibanja situated on Kyaggwe Block 113 plot 392 Namanve in Mukono district.

In his application, Kirumira accused police officer Anatoli Katungwesi, the Kampala East regional police commander; Erasmus Twaruhukwa, the police legal director; Edirisa Kyeyune, the Mukono district police commander; Norah Akide, the Namanve police station commander of disobeying the court order.

In his affidavit, Kirumira accused the defendants of defying a court order stopping the surveying of the land on which his Kibanja is located.

He also wanted Ambrose Ocol the State Attorney in the Attorney Generals chambers to be subjected to cross examination for defending the accused persons without their instructions.

However, Ocol told court that he received instructions to represent the defendants from the Attorney General Kiwanuka.

He insisted that the defendants allowed the surveying of the land legally which is procedural in their work and they cannot be sued individually.

He explained that the survey was done with the guidance of Twaruhukwa who was implementing the Court Order issued by Justice David Batema in 2021.

“Police officers cannot be sued individually because this would set a bad precedent in the country which can lead to police failing in their activities,” Mark Muwonge, another State Attorney, told the court.

Justice Matovu agreed with the respondent and dismissed the application with costs explaining that it was filed to waste courts time.

He set 27^th November, 2023 as a date when he is going to visit the locus to ascertain the truth of the matter through interacting with neighbours to the contested land.

He directed Kirumira’s lawyers led by Francis Ssebowa to make sure that their client is present during the ground interaction.

According to Court documents, Kirumira claims to have bought the kibanja from Yokana Galikwoleka Mukasa who died in 1996.

However, Liberty ICD lawyers led by Esau Isingoma of K&K Advocates claim that Kirumira acted fraudulently including directing his alleged employee a one Steven Muwongo to put his thumbprint on the sales agreement insisting that the contested agreement was signed in 2017 yet Mukasa died longtime ago.

Kirumira is also accused of fraudulently paying only Shs1.27m as stamp duty on the contested 85 acres of land yet according to the government chief valuer, he was supposed to pay Shs573m.

Sources at K&K Advocates intimated to theGrapevine that Kirumira’s action are criminal in nature and he is likely to face criminal charges over undervaluation of the property which is under dispute.

However Kirumira’s lawyers were allowed to appeal against justice Matovu’s ruling at the Court of Appeal.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

A city lawyer and property mogul has accused NCBA Uganda of trying to defraud him of value by selling his prime property in Kampala by employing underhand methods

Deox Tibeingana, also a property developer, accuses NCBA Bank Uganda of trying to sell off his property by maliciously advertising the same.  He says that in doing so, they are trying to actualize a fraud.

On Monday, September 25, 2023, the bank advertised the lawyer’s property in Mbuya for sale in the Daily Monitor, with a call to the occupants to vacate. He attached a letter from the bank granting him 30 days extension from 16th September 2023 but even before the lapse of the days given, the bank was advertising. This obviously means his efforts are now useless.

For Tibeingana, it raised a red flag.

“They put up a notice for ‘occupants’ to vacate property knowing that I voluntarily vacated the property under the false presumption that they (the bank) would respect common sense and sell the property by private treaty,” he says.

Tibeingana reveals that by going ahead to advertise, NCBA bank was cementing its reputation as a financial institution that thrives on other people’s misfortune.

Tibeingana, who had a financial obligation with the bank, said he approached the bank, when it was still being headed by Mr. Anthony Ndegwa, with proposals on how he could pay part of the loan to a tune of UGX 1 billion.  However, they were unrelenting and he flew to Nairobi at the bank’s head office where he got positive feedback.

“In Nairobi, they accepted my proposal to sell off the Estates in Kireka to pay off the principal. However, what followed was the most unprofessional and childish display of personal vendetta from the bank. They said that since I had gone to Nairobi, they would frustrate me and refused to accept an immediate part payment of UGX 670m insisting I must pay UGX 1 billion in one lumpsum,” he says.

Part of lawyer Tibeingana’s letter to NCBA

According to Tibeingana, it went on for one year with interest accumulating at 36%. Eventually, after frustrating me, the Managing Director called to say he was going to sell off the property in piece meal and had buyers. They became the brokers for my properties and were negotiating with clients to pay them inducements on the side and sold all the property that way.

Tibeingana also accuses the then MD of meeting up with his (Tibeingana’s) business rival, a notable loan shark, at a Golf Course Hotel, and devising means to frustrate him.

“I engaged lawyers (Kyazze & Kyankaka advocates), after I got wind of the MD’s meeting with the loan shark. They put it to him that since I had constructed the apartments and had shown steps to create value and pay the bank, their scheme was bound to fail,” he says.

He recalls that in 2020, he requested the bank to release to its lawyers the land title for plot 8A Mbuya Road so he could create condominium titles to sell the houses he had constructed and pay the bank.  They refused his request for 6 months while his account ran on penal interest.

According to Tibeingana, the bank eventually relented but he had to first raise 10% of the agreed sum before he could get the title. After depositing UGX 250M, the title was released and the condos created.  “I was able to pay the bank UGX2.5Billion in 30 days after selling 5 of the 43 condos that were created.  Upon payment of these monies, It was another battle to get my titles released as management was “too busy” to sign all the 38 mortgage releases,” he narrates.

Tibeingana recalls that on two separate occasions, officials from the bank approached him proposing a gentleman’s agreement to sign sham mortgage documents of UGX 3.88bn and UGX 3.97bn in a period of 3 days to fool BOU auditors. He further narrates that “…I was shocked to later learn that these too had been registered against my properties as legal charges. It was against that fact that I filed a suit to challenge the thuggery of the bank,” he says.

He reveals that out of the UGX3.5b lent to him by the bank, he has so far paid back more than UGX7.5b, but the bank now claims they are still demanding UGX 1.6bn.

“We reached an agreement and I vacated the building so that the bank could tour prospective buyers after they declined my offer to participate in disposal of the property. Hardly a week has passed and the bank is keeping with its culture of advertising a property under a mortgage Act, whereas the agreement was a gentleman’s deed to sell under the insolvency act by all players,” he says.

By Grapevine Reporter

The Thursday monthly Buganda Clan Heads meeting which sat at Bulange building the headquarters of Buganda Kingdom ended in bitter verbal exchanges between a section of clan heads and their council speaker Omuttaka Augustine Kizito Mutumba, the Kkobe clan head.

The day begans with the clan heads meeting the Kingdom deputy premier Owekitiibwa professor Twaha Kawaasi who presided over the launch of the annual cultural and norms seminar at Bulange.

The clan heads then proceeded to holding a council meeting.

Communication was made by their speaker Omuttaka Mutumba concerning the inspection of works going on on the piece of land that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni bought for them last month.

They all agreed that the inspection should be done immediately after the meeting.

However, when the meeting closed, Mutumba told fellow clan heads that it is not going to be possible for the entire council to move together and inspect the said land.

He explained that if it is done, it will put their council in bad light before their boss Ronald Muwenda Mutebi the Kabaka of Buganda.

The soft-spoken Mutumba advised fellow clan heads that they can inspect the work individually, noting that when it is done in that way, it will not attract media attention.

He added that the issue of the land which they wanted to inspect is before the Kabaka and it will be on top of the agenda during their planned meeting with them because he has written to him on behalf of the council.

It should be noted that Buganda Premier Charles Peter Mayiga protested Museveni’s move to buy land for clan heads without the knowledge of Buganda Kingdom administration and Kabaka Mutebi.

A select committee was established according to a highly placed source at Bulange headed by a senior city lawyer who is also a minister in Kabaka’s government to investigate the matter and guide both Kabaka Mutebi and Mayiga on the way forward.

Sources close to Mutumba told the might Grapevine that Mutumba is also waiting for the report from the select committee that’s why he declined to allow the proposal fronted by Yusuf Mbirozankya the head of Fumbe clan that the council should inspect the work that is being done on the land.

A big section of clan heads especially those who met President Museveni protested Mutumba’s advice threatening to shun King Ronnie’s meeting with them if it does not address their most pressing issues.

Mutumba was accused of using the clan heads council to achieve personal gains.

They gave an example that in 2021, during Kabaka Mutebi’s meeting with Museveni at Nakasero State Lodge, Mutumba was among the people who escorted the Kabaka and in the meeting, he was presented as a representative of the clan heads council.

” You told us that you presented our interests, when we asked you the kind of interest you presented and who gave you those interests, you declined to answer promising to give us a detailed report which we haven’t received up to now,” one of the clan heads told Mutumba face to face.

He further accused him of hiding in Kabaka Mutebi’s name to soil other people’s name.

They insisted that before meeting Kabaka as he informed them, they should discuss the agenda and among the issues that should be addressed include; ownership of Buganda Land Board (BLB)  which many termed as Kabaka Mutebi’s cash cow.

Buganda Land Board was established to manage and administer the Kingdom land and clan heads claim that some of the land that BLB manages belonged to their clans as their headquarters but it was sold off.

They claim that Kabaka is a trustee of the Kingdom land owned on behalf of Baganda and they cannot look on as the entire Kingdom land is sold off by BLB hiding under Kabaka’s name.

They also want to know their status in Buganda since  Mayiga told them that legally in Buganda, Kabaka Mutebi is the only cultural leader known in Buganda as a corporation sole and he is the one responsible for all the Kingdom properties, especially land.

They boasted that they are the foundation of the Kingdom and their status has to be recognised legally.

They want the Kabaka to support them in their quest to have the Cultural and Traditional leaders Act amended so that they are also recognised as cultural leaders in Buganda legally.

The clan heads also want to know the status of ownership of Kasubi tombs after some claimed that they were told that the tombs are owned by UNESCO, government of Uganda and some persons in Buganda Kingdom even though it is Kingdom property.

They further want the Kabaka to address them concerning allegation that land at Bulange where the Kingdom headquarters sits was subdivided into plots and it is currently covertly owned by individuals even though it has to be a Kingdom property.

Buganda Kingdom information minister Israel Kitooke Kazibwe told theGrapevine that talks between the Kingdom clan heads and the executive are going on with the mission of resolving the small misunderstanding resulting from the Museveni meeting.

In the same development, theGrapevine has established that security of the two most vocal clan heads who met Museveni has been beefed up with plain clothed soldiers armed with pistols who are guarding them.

When asked why they decided to move with soldiers, they explained that their lives have been threatened by people who always threaten to harm them over Museveni meetings.

Security at their offices at Mengo was also beefed up, and plans are underway to put two gates and a fence on the land Museveni bought for them so that access to it is limited.

Sources disclosed that they are going to first erect tents on the land where they will hold meetings as they wait for the completion of the commercial building president Museveni promised them.

On the same piece of land, there is a washing bay for the youths. The clan heads divulged that it will remain in operation until the building process kicks off which is expected next year.

The land title is registered in the names of Bataka Trust Limited and Omuttaka Mutumba is one of the directors.

By Sengooba Alirabaki