Property mogul, Mohan Musisi Kiwanuka (pictured left) has questioned and protested Police’s deployment at his properties, describing the act as unlawful.
The properties in question are on plots 10A and 10B Akii Bua Road, Nakasero, and 21-29 Golf Course Road, Kololo. They are owned by Visa Investments, one of the many companies owned and run by Kiwanuka.
In a letter dated 10th October 2019 to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Martin Okoth Ochola and the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF), General David Muhoozi, Kiwanuka reveals that on that very day, he woke up to find members of Uganda Police deployed at the said properties. The letter is also copied to the Deputy IGP, Muzeeyi Sabiiti and the Area MP.
“The deployment of Police disrupted all the activities we had planned for the day which included the handing over of the premises to our new tenants,” the tycoon writes in a letter seen by Business Focus.
He adds: “We strongly protest the actions of the Police to invade a private property without lawful basis. We would like to be informed what interest the Police may have in our properties.”
The tycoon threatens to take legal action against the Police if he is not responded to in time.
It is understood that tycoon Kiwanuka’s son, Jordan Ssebuliba Kiwanuka (inset middle) petitioned Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) requesting the City Authority to halt renovation permits issued for properties comprised in LRV 210 Folio 20, Plot 21-29, Golf Course Road, Kololo and LRV 434 Folio 7 Plot 10 and 10B Akii Bua Road, Nakasero.
In the letter dated 3rd October 2019 to KCCA’s Physical Planning boss, Ssebuliba says the said premises in question are “the subject of the ongoing court case filed with the High Court of Uganda Land Division vide Civil Suit No 535 of 2019, Jordan Ssebuliba and 2 others Vs Visa Investments and Anor.
Responding to Ssebuliba’s letter, Moses K. Atwine, the Director Physical Planning at KCCA rejected to halt or cancel the permits as requested by Ssebuliba because the issue had earlier been sorted by the same court.
A letter in our possession dated 8th October 2019, Atwine writes: “…We are aware of a court order dated 18th September 2019 and a court ruling dated 27th September 2019, both in your possession which resolved your concerns regarding the subject properties in the negative.”
Source of Trouble
It should be noted that all was well until 17th June 2019 when the tycoon asked his son, Ssebuliba to vacate the disputed properties (LRV 210 Folio 20, Plot 21-29, Golf Course Road, Kololo and Plot 10 Akii Bua Road, Nakasero).
In the letter copied in to his lawyers of M/S Buwule & Mayiga Advocates, Kiwanuka tells off the son to vacate his properties after he (Ssebuliba) portrayed his father as inconsiderate and unreasonable among his siblings and relatives yet it is not true.
“You will recall you moved into my properties without my knowledge and or permission, which no other sibling of yours has ever done. You occupied these properties for the last ten (10) years on commercial basis generating money there from without any accountability and without paying rent,” the old man writes.
He adds: “You knew from the beginning that I acquired those properties as commercial investments and not for charity. On several occasions, I verbally asked you in a parental manner to make arrangements to return the properties back to me for proper management but you turned a deaf ear.”
In the emotional letter, Kiwanuka concludes: “I want you and your siblings to know that I made my investments on my own business instincts which most people could not appreciate at the time but turned out well as I had anticipated. I now need those properties and it will be decent of you to hand them back to me without the embarrassment of resorting to auctioneers or any other forceful methods for that matter.”
It is after this letter that Ssebuliba ran to court asking it to declare his father a person of unsound mind, purportedly resulting from the reported dementia related ailments. He prayed that court finds his further incapable of running his businesses and instead declare him (Ssebuliba) the overall administrator of tens of family companies.
The old man’s business empire built over the years is now at stake as Ssebuliba and his mother Beatrice Luyiga Kavuma claim that Kiwanuka’s official wife, Maria Kiwanuka, Uganda’s former Minister of Finance wants to grab the family wealth riding on Kiwanuka’s alleged illness.
However, the property mogul has since stood his ground, said he is stable, knows what he is doing and indeed, successfully convinced of the same before it (Court) recently ruled in affirmative. This left Ssebuliba’s case with leaning of no balancing position.
Nevertheless, in an interesting twist, Beatrice for the very first time rose in his son’s place against Mohan and Maria Kiwanuka. Last week, she issued a surprise missive alleging that Maria has been ordering Kiwanuka on what to do. Beatrice re-echoes her son’s claim that Kiwanuka is a man of unsound mind and that Maria has since taken advantage of his supposed ill health to lay claim to the family wealth.
She also resounds the allegation that Kiwanuka wants to drag her out of the ‘marital’ home in Kololo. However, available documents shows no eviction order has ever been issued in effect of this claim. This is also supported by Kiwanuka’s known stand that he only advised Beatrice to rent out the house, relocate to his other Kamwokya home and use the rental dues for her upkeep.
