By Mulengera Reporters
In November last year, former Ugandan Ambassador to South Africa Kintu Nyago was among Kigo-Ziranumbu residents who were evicted by court bailiffs of DAKS & CO ASSOCIATES. This was in fulfillment of the eviction order court had issued on 14th September 2022. The eviction was preceded by an earlier ruling of the High Court in which Nyago and others were declared “illegal occupants, trespassers and encroachers” on the same land measuring up to 12 acres.
The land in question is situated on Ziranumbu hill directly overlooking Victoria Serena Hotel and Golf Course in Kigo. The land is part of the much larger estate for the late Eridad Medard Kasirye Mulira. His children Dr. Ham Mulira Mukasa and Peter Mulira are currently the Administrators of the estate equally representing their two other siblings namely Sarah Mulira and George Kasedde Mukasa who died in June 2021 and January 2018 respectively.
Available literature on the anti-Nyago court file shows that over the years, a group led by Maliko Kityo came around and dubiously occupied part of the land and at least eventually laid claim to 12 acres. They called themselves Bibanja holders and bonafide occupants fallaciously claiming to be protected under the 1995 Constitution and the Land Act. With passage of time, they became confident and began selling plots sold to other people including Nyago. But the court decision in Civil Suit No. 278 of 2008 declared Kityo & Co (plus those they eventually sold to) mere “land grabbers, encroachers and trespassers.”
They didn’t appeal and when that became the painful reality, Nyago & Co worked out a strategy to use media to demonize Dr. Ham Mulira and Peter Mulira in the hope that, being eminent citizens, they would fear for their names and back off.
Subsequently, Nyago gave an interview which was published by the Observer newspaper of 30th November-6th December 2022 and on its website to the effect that Dr. Ham Mulira was a dubious person using his office as a former Minister and Senior Presidential Advisor on ICT matters to intimidate Bibanja holders. In the Observer story, Nyago was quoted as saying Ham had forged court documents besides bribing judicial officers involved in return for a favorable judgment against Maliko Kityo & Co. That he was using his local and international connections to intimidate the poor Bibanja holders off the land.
WANTS 500M:
Now through his lawyers (Wante & Co Advocates), Dr. Ham Mulira (having reached some understanding with the newspaper) has dragged Ambassador Nyago to the civil division of the High Court for defamation.
That Nyago‘s acts and conduct towards Ham Mulira, the legitimate owner of the land, amounted to libel and false misrepresentation. That he was humiliated as his reputation got damaged as a citizen and computer scientist of high standing both within Uganda and abroad.
Nyago‘s newspaper story was published in the Observer of 30th November-6th December 2022. Remarkably, it was published after the court bailiffs had effected their eviction on 16th November. Denying everything Nyago stated about him, Dr. Ham Mulira is demanding for Shs500m in both general and exemplary damages which Nyago (who doesn’t seem to have any defense) will have to pay.
Dr. Ham Mulira also wants an apology prominently published in the same newspaper at the defendant’s cost besides a permanent injunction stopping Nyago from ever uttering such defamatory statements against him again.
Nyago has since been served through his whatsapp phone number which indicated two blue ticks to authenticate his receipt of court papers. Ham Mulira‘s lawyers resorted to this method of service after failing to establish any of Nyago‘s supposed addresses namely the work place or his place of abode.
The court papers indicate that Nyago, who might end up condemned unheard because of his reluctance to hire a lawyer to file his defense, was served with notice of intention to sue which he ignored instead of reaching out to find some way to sit down with Dr. Ham Mulira and deescalate things. The anti-Nyago civil suit is filed and registered as C/S No. 0019 of 2023 and the Muliras will evidently stop at nothing in their bid to seek and obtain justice against Nyago who they believe knowingly set out to disrepute their otherwise good name. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 0200900416 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
