Kampala city businesswoman Teopista Nabbale the proprietor of Teopista & Jesus Holding Limited is in tears after a bank hired ruthless Court Bailiff to auction her multibillion properties over debt.

Mutesasira a seasoned nonsense court bailiff has confirmed that he received instructions to auction Nabbale’s properties including land in Kabalagala, Kisugu on Block 244 plot 541 Kyadondo Kampala city measuring 0.15 hectares and all the buildings on it.

“All the occupants of the advertised properties are hereby notified to vacate within fourteen days from the date of this publication, failure of which they shall be forcefully evicted at their own cost,” Mutesasira’s advert published in the daily monitor of Tuesday this week reads in part.

Nabbale, a member of Kwagalana group that brings together Kampala city tycoons was given 30 days from the date of the publication to clear the debt or lose it.

theGrapevine has established that recently, Harriet Grace Magala the judge of the Commercial Division of the High Court dismissed Nabbale’s application to stay the execution of the judgment she lost against Cairo bank noting that the applicant had failed to confirm to court that her properties were under threat of being auctioned and there was no proof that she had filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal challenging the High Court decision.

Nabbale secured a Shs5bn loan from the said financial institution using her land titles as security and in 2023, she entered a consent judgment with the bank promising to pay the money.

She later protested the amount the bank was claiming that it was demanding from her.

According to the documents, the bank claimed that it demanded Shs9bn while Nabbale was insisting that the bank only demanded Shs5bn and that they agreed in the consent judgment to pay that amount.

Court directed her to file an application challenging Shs4bn which she failed to do.

theGrapevine established that there are criminal charges related to fraud filed against Nabbale at Buganda road court and very soon criminal summons are going to be issued against her.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Justice Musa Sekaana the head of the Civil Division of the High Court has allowed the registration of the judgment issued in Kenya against a Ugandan shipping company.

According to court documents, Mary Nyambura Mukuha and Grace Wanjiru Nyambura are suing as legal representatives of the Estate of Paul Nyutu, Stephen Mwaura and John Mukuha Wanjiru who died because of the negligence of a registered agent of Three Way Shipping Group of Companies Limited.

In her affidavit, Nyambura told Court that they are seeking a court directive to register the judgment issued by Naivasha Chief Magistrate Court so as to execute the orders against Three Ways Shipping Company which is incorporated in Uganda and has offices along Jinja road opposite Jinja road police station.

She explained to the court that their three people were riding a Motorcycle Reg No. KMCA 016P on 27^th October 2013 when they were knocked and killed by a trailer with Ugandan Registration No. plates UAL 839N.

She added that they instituted a case against the shipping company and fully served them with court documents but they intentionally refused to file a defense and the matter proceeded by way of formal proof.

The judgment was delivered on 4^th march 2020.

She told court that they executed their judgment and on 30^th April, 2023, court issued a court order allowing them to recover a decretal sum, costs and interest from the date of judgment totaling to Kshs 8,607,615/= (UGX 238,204,903.59).

In his ruling, Justice Ssekaana noted that his court took judicial notice of the fact that Kenya is a Commonwealth country, and it being a protectorate of Britain which has a reciprocal arrangement with Uganda, the matter before him emanates from Naivasha Chief Magistrates Court which is located in Kenya and was properly seized with jurisdiction to hear and determine a matter.

He explained that it is not the duty of his court to entertain an application for registration of a foreign judgment to sit on appeal over the decision of the original court that delivered the judgment sought to be registered.

He further wondered why the shipping company does not exercise its right of appeal under the laws of the foreign country challenging the decision passed against it noting that his court only needs to ensure that the applicant complies with the requirements of the courts on registration of foreign judgment which was done.

The applicants through their lawyers led by Lastone Gulume have started the process of recovering their money including auctioning off the properties owned by the financially troubled shipping companies.

The Company’s top founding directors Oscar Baitwa and Geoffrey Bahamaiso are also facing criminal charges before the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court on the allegation of stealing Shs7bn from MTN Uganda.

By Grapevine reporter

The Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Namisango Kamya has kicked off investigation into allegation that top city tycoons connived with Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) to benefit from Shs28.8bn illegal compensation from President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government.

The development resulted from a requested letter from Dr Sam Mayanja the State Minister for Lands in the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development claiming that the land where government compensated the tycoons is public land hence they fraudulently obtained the land titles they used to secure the deal.

Mayanja revealed to the IGG that he has done preliminary investigation into the allegations and establish that the tycoons secured the land titles registered on: LRV 4143 Folio 2 Plot 14, LRV 4143 Folio 3 Plot 16, KCCA 3741, Folio 19 Plot 12A, LRV 4144 Folio 7 Plot 28-40,  LRV 4139 Folio 13, Plot 8, LRV 4130 Folio 14, Plot 41, Volume KCCA 232 Folio 21, Plot 1-4. 5-7, and 8-11 and LRV 4149 Folio 15 Plots 18-26 and 10-12 fraudulently after learning that the government was going to pass the Namanve-Luzira 132 KV transmission through that land.

Mayanja further claim that the accused tycoons include: Flavia Muntuyera, Asuman Irunga, Delmas Apartments Limited, Prestigious Apartments Limited, Aisha Mulungi, Irene Kwera and to his surprise, Muntuyera and Irunga had been listed twice which means they had benefited twice.

Mayanja also revealed that he has established that the said tycoons didn’t pay stamp duty when the land titles were made in their respective names.

In the letter to the IGG, Mayanja said that he has instructed the Commissioner Land Registration to put a caveat on the said land titles in question until the investigations are complete.

He pleaded with her to also take legal action against all the culprits for causing financial loss to the government.

However, theGrapevine established that the multibillion transaction resulted from a court suit where the tycoons sued the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, UETCL which was represented by K&K Advocates, a law firm where Kiwanuka is a founding partner and the Commissioner Land Registration and all parties entered a settlement to resolve the matter out of court.

It was agreed that all the plaintiffs agreed to be compensated with Shs28.852bn being full and final settlement on all the claims they had on the land and highly placed sources in the Ministry of Lands confirmed to theGrapevine that the said amount of money was paid to the beneficiaries.

However, in September 2023, Attorney General Kiwanuka wrote a legal opinion advising that the government should not compensate any land title in a wetland and his advice was directly going to the people who claim that they were affected during the construction of the electricity transmission line along Namanve-Luzira.

“Section 44 of the Land Act guides us on how we should deal with this land and provides for the control of the environmentally sensitive areas. Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that titles issued in wetlands, including those in lakes after the Land Act Cap 227, are contrary to the law and illegal,” the Attorney General stated.

theGrapevine has established that the Commission of Inquiry into land matters, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire who was the chairperson of the commission recommended that people who obtained private land titles in Namanve and Luzira wetlands including those in the lake should not be compensated by the government.

By Sengooba Alirabaki