Court throws tycoon Kiwanuka’s son out of father’s properties.

By Musasizi Isaac

Trucks carrying dozens of police officers have witnessed evictions on Tuesday of the estranged son of a city tycoon from multibillion property at Bwerenga in Kira Municipality Wakiso District.

The son, Jordan Kiwanuka, the son of Mr. Mohan Kiwanuka was facing a third eviction on Tuesday following two earlier ones that threw him away together with his mother Beatrice from properties at Seven Trees- an Upclass bar and leisure centre and a house at Plot 10 Akii Bua Avenue in Nakasero where he had an office.

Seven Trees is located on Folio 20, plot 21-29 on Golf Course road in Kololo. Jordan was also evicted from.

Jordan filed four suits in four different courts but he failed in all. Instead court found him liable for forgery and abuse of office with intent to take property which belonged to Kiwanuka’s companies.

In one of the suits, Civil suit number 253/2019 Jordan Sebuliba & Anor versus Visa Investments Limited & Anor, Justice Julius Godfrey Namundi in the presence of Lawyer for Jordan, Mr. Patrick Alung and Faisal Mukasa for Visa Investments passed a six point order.

Justice Namundi ordered that the mother of Jordan, Ms. Beatrice is struck off the case. Secondly the case was a res judicats and it was barred in terms of section 20, 219 and 220 of the companies Act.

But the most detrimental order was that a judgment was entered on admission of the original plaint and plaintiffs are to account for their occupation of the suit premises;The plaintiffs were also ordered to vacate the premises belonging to the companies that they were occupying and lastly the plaintiffs shall bear the costs.

Issues on November 26, 2019 but was renewed this year.

Initially Jordan had filed the suits with another sibling but along the way, court told him he did not merit and therefore he was added his mother Beatrice as one of the complainants.

Jordan with her mother Beatrice had sued Mr. Mohan Kiwanuka accusing him of being weakened to reminisce, judge because the tycoon was allegedly suffering from dementia. And n that basis they asked court to give them powers to run the estate of Kiwanuka, one of the wealthiest people in Uganda.

Kiwanuka’s wealth ranges from real estate, Construction, manufacturing to broadcasting.

The mother of Jordan, Ms Beatrice complained that it was wrong for a man with whom she has children to just throw her away. But she has been reminded of two cases in Tanzania that even having a man’s name on a woman’s identification card and living in his house is not a guarantee that you are married.

In September 2020, in Tanzania, two verdicts were passed separately. In the first a woman was seeking a share of a man’s estate in Muranga. In the second one, a woman wanted money following the sale of a house in Ngome, Tanzania.

But court ruled that they were not legally married, it meant they were just friends and could not share anything.

Back here, as court battles raged on, Mr. Kiwanuka was forced to write a fatherly letter to his son asking him to vacate Seven Trees and a house at Akibua in Kololo but he refused to pay heed. Below is the full letter.

 “Demand for vacant possession FRV folio 20 Plot 21-29 Golf Course Road, Kololo And Plot 10 Akii Bua Avenue Nakasero.

I have been forced to pen this missive to you to make you understand my reasons behind the position I have taken with regard to my above properties among others. You should know me well enough by now to understand that under any other circumstances, I would not have to explain my reasons to you or anybody else for that matter.

The reasons I am doing this is because you decided to blow my decision to take back my properties out of proportion and to portray me amongst your siblings and other relatives as being inconsiderate and unreasonable, which is not true.

You will recall that you moved into the above properties without my knowledge and or permission, which no other sibling of yours has ever done. You occupied those properties for the last ten (10) years on commercial basis generating money therefrom without any accountability and without paying rent.

You knew from the beginning that I acquired those properties as commercial investments and not charity. On several occasions, I have 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 hear. It is therefore not true that the notice from my lawyers came unexpectedly or was a surprise. You knew I needed you out of these properties many years back.

I was taken aback recently when you dared to suggest to my face that I should close up and sell my factory! Jordan, I was greatly disappointed and hurt. You cannot fathom where I have come from to achieve whatever I have achieved and for you, you have the audacity to dare to suggest that I should sell my factory because in your view, I can no longer manage to run it, was an insult to say the least.

In light of your ill-advised actions, I have come to learn how you have been trying to influence my staff behind my back to stop them from working on Saturdays and how you deducted payments from the security staff without you declaring it. This is a direct interference with my workers and intermeddling in my work which I cannot continue to tolerate.

After your ill-fated advice or directive for the sale of my factory, you instigated people who claimed to be KCCA enforcements people to come to the factory on or about the 21^st May 2019 and threatened to close the factory for unpaid dues.

Fortunately I had previously given a payment schedule to KCCA which they had accepted but their response was received at your office and [you] never forwarded to me. There are a number of other unpleasant incidents I could mention but I hope the above gives you a sense of my feelings and the reasons behind my decision.

I gave you the best education and upbringing just like all your siblings. In return, I have not seen any particular moment where you have shown care for me, your father but only insatiable desire to grab whatever you can lay your hands on.

Lastly, 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 as 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. By copy of this letter, my lawyers are hereby instructed to follow through my instructions to the letter.” Wrote the old man two years ago.

Unfortunately, Jordan never took heed of his father’s missive and parental guide and indeed, like the old man predicted, it today ended via “the embarrassment of resorting to auctioneers and other forceful methods.”