Court blocks media from Kiwanuka's property case

Oct 30, 2019

The media should stop giving opinions, discussing, and doing interviews concerning our client because they are misleading the public.

COURT 

Embattled City tycoon Mohan Kiwanuka has asked the court to order the tradition and online media to stop giving opinions about the case until it is determined.

Kiwanuka made the request yesterday before Justice Namundi, the head of Family Division of the High Court, in Makindye, through his lawyer, Faisal Mukasa, of Fidel legal advocates.

"My lord we want the media to stop giving their opinions, discussing, and doing interviews concerning our client because they are misleading the public. We want to argue the matter in court without any public debate," said Mukasa.

He made the revelations during the second hearing of a case in which Jordan Ssebuliba is seeking orders stopping his father Mohan Kiwanuka from evicting him from a Kololo property.

Last week when the case came up for hearing, Justice Geoffrey Namundi said he could not make any orders regarding the matter because the registrar, Prossy Katushabe, had travelled to Zanzibar and never forwarded the file to him.

"I cannot even make an order because I have no file," said Justice Namundi, the head of Family Division of the High Court, in Makindye.

On July 4, Ssebuliba, together with his mother Beatrice Luyiga Kiwanuka and Lowerhill Management Limited petitioned the court, seeking an order restraining his father from removing him from the family property and firing him from his job.

It is purported that Kiwanuka ejected Sebuliba from plot 21-29 Golf course road, Kololo and plot 10 Akii Bua Avenue Rd, Nakasero and sacked him from his businesses, where he was a signatory.

Through lawyers, Sebuliba wanted the court to issue an order lifting the veil of incorporation of Visa Investments, and a permanent injunction against his alleged unlawful eviction.

Court documents further reveal that Kiwanuka appointed Maria Kiwanuka as director, he (Kiwanuka) allegedly wrote to Ssebuliba and his mother, Beatrice, asking them to vacate the respective properties because he wanted to sell them since they were dormant or non-income generating assets, to clear a debt.

He argues that his father was not in the right frame of mind to do so. He claims there are people taking advantage of his father's fragile health to misguide him.

Recently, the Civil Division of the High Court judge Musa Sekaana dismissed a case in which Ssebuliba had sought to have his father, tycoon Mohan Kiwanuka, undergo a compulsory mental test.

He ruled that there was no sufficient evidence to show that Mohan Kiwanuka is mentally unstable and incapable of running his businesses.

"Nobody should be adjudged to be an idiot. It would be defamatory to drag someone living peacefully and let them to dementia tests. It would be absurd to take a man doing his business peacefully for impairment tests," Ssekaana ruled.

The letters to evict them were written by Francis Buwule of Buwule & Mayiga Advocates, who Kiwanuka appointed to replace Jordan as a company secretary on May 10. However, Buwule wrote to the trial judge requesting to formally withdraw from the case citing conflict of interest that may arise in the future in case he is called a witness.

"My withdrawal is tactical, we were handling the case jointly with Faisal Mukasa but than I realized that as a company secretary and a potential witness to give evidence on behalf of the company, I cannot be the counsel and the same time witness. It was necessary for me to step down and let legal advocates proceed with the case," said Buwule.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});