By Our Reporters
It’s difficult to discuss contemporary commercial banking practice and regulation in Uganda without reflecting on the name Timothy Masembe Kanyerezi. A practicing lawyer since 1996 (when he was first enrolled as an advocate of the High Court of Uganda), Masembe is the powerful managing partner of the equally powerful MMAKS law firm based on Diamond Trust Building in the middle of Kampala City. In 1994 he completed Diploma in Legal Practice at the LDC having previously qualified as Barrister-at-law, England & Wales (1992). In 1991 he became member of Honorable Society of Inner Temple of England having completed his LL.B in 1991 at the University of London. Before becoming partner at MMAKS in 2005, the flamboyant Masembe had (1993 –2005) worked as a Partner with Mugerwa & Masembe Advocates. He specializes in Corporate and Commercial Law as well as Litigation and Dispute Resolution. Professionally, he is a member of Uganda Law Society, East African Law Society and the Honorable Society of Inner Temple of England. At MMAKS, he leads the firm’s Litigation Team and his practice focuses mainly on commercial litigation and arbitration, as well as corporate and commercial law. He describes himself as one of the leading litigators in Uganda having appeared in many ground breaking cases. He has also been consistently ranked as a Band 1 commercial lawyer by the Chambers Global. He is an external lead counsel for the Bank of Uganda and has been at the center of the reconstruction and improvement of Uganda’s entire banking sector. That notwithstanding, BoU Governor Emmanuel Mutebile has previously wished to reduce on the number of central bank cases his firm gets assigned to handle on grounds that he is too expensive and ever levying his fees in dollars. Masembe’s outstanding works and closeness to the regulator BoU has won him prestigious membership to governing boards for Capital Markets Authority and NC Bank Limited where he is BoD chairman. He is also a BoD member for Jubilee Insurance Company of Uganda Ltd owned by the Aga Khan whose DTB bank he has represented at some point as a lawyer. He is also their tenant at DTB headquarters on Kampala Road. This tenancy is just for convenience and not because Masembe couldn’t find/afford alternative office space elsewhere. This is the information officially known about Masembe Kanyerezi whose other secrets are being unmasked as part of this investigative piece below.
UNTOLD SECRETS;
Masembe hails from a powerful background and has clearly never known poverty or misery in his life. His father is Professor Bwogi Kanyerezi, a powerful Muganda renowned for his old money and unique medical practice. Professor Kanyerezi, whose support for the FDC’s Kizza Besigye president Museveni has previously complained about, owns the upscale Kampala Hospital based in Kololo which is a multi-billion facility lucratively handling many complex medical cases that previously used to be done abroad. Masembe’s mother was fathered by a staunch Anglican priest who was the pioneer native African Chaplain for St. Francis Chapel Makerere. Mrs. Kanyerezi’s other sibling was called Sylvester Kaddu. Masembe’s father Prof Kanyerezi’s father (called Masembe) was the head of Nkuluze (the king’s personal treasurer; the way Gen Nalweyiso is for Museveni today) for Kabaka Sir Edward Mutesa who fathers current Kabaka Mutebi. Timothy’s grandfather was so fond of his king Mutesa II he offered viscous personal resistance when Obote’s forces raided the Mengo palace during the 1966 crisis and Obote’s men furiously revenged by burying him alive in the Lubiri. Through marriage, Timothy is also related to former Buganda Katikkiro Dan Mulika of the Muchwa lineage. Joyce Mpanga (who mothers Kabaka’s AG David Mpanga) is sister to Prof Kanyerezi and therefore a paternal auntie to Timothy. They hail from Singo in Mityana. Joyce’s husband Fred Mpanga was Mutesa’s Attorney General, personal friend and went with him to exile after the 1966 violence by Obote. After studies, Timothy initially worked with the law firm Fred Mpanga (his in-law) had founded with ex-Solicitor General and Amin minister Nkambo Mugerwa. The two men had great history of excellence, connection and power behind them and this association gave Timothy a great start into the legal practice. Fred Mpanga later moved on and Nkambo Mugerwa teamed up with Mathias Matovu, another former Amin Solicitor General. Naturally it’s understood it was the Joyce Mpanga connection that got Timothy a slot into the law firm where he pioneered his legal practice. Later on Matovu died and Nkambo Mugerwa went into retirement leaving the young ones to take center stage. Timothy had by that time grown from Associate to partner. It was in Joyce’s interest that Timothy moved in to fortify her hubby the late Fred Mpanga’s interest in the firm as David Mpanga was yet to become of age. Timothy was slightly ahead of him. David came in later on and benefited from Timothy’s mentoring. The Westmont Malaysia’s failed attempt to take over Uganda Commercial Bank was one of the major things the Masembes got involved in cultivating strong rapport with BoU which needed a lot of legal representation and gratefully they did a good job. Prof Kanyerezi, just like his sister Joyce, still had very good rapport with then very revolutionary Museveni whose ascendance to power and eventual popularization in Buganda the duo had actively participated in. One of them reached out to Museveni who had no problem ensuring the BoU Westmont assignment went to the firm in which the duo’s children worked. BoU bosses were very excited with the efficiency with which the young attorneys delivered the job and salvaged the UCB process. In the end Stanbic, which was to later become Timothy’s good client, took UCB buying it through the BoU. Considering that Timothy as a big brother might at some point develop differences with David Mpanga, Joyce advised her son to part and use the good cash they made in the Westmont assignment to start his own law firm (AF Mpanga initially officed at Workers House).
STARTING MMAKS;
Timothy too linked up with his friends like Moses Adriko, Apollo Makubuya, Mathias Sekatawa, Philip Karugaba and others and they founded MMAKS which is an abbreviation of their names. There was certainty getting business wasn’t going to be hard because of the profile Timothy had built by handling BoU’s would-be difficult cases including the Westmont thing. In the Westmont assignment Sr Counsel Dr. Byamugisha closely worked with them to take care of the fears Museveni initially had entrusting the whole matter on young lawyers who by that time didn’t have that much claim to legal fame. Timothy was retained as BoU’s external lawyer, something that inspired many commercial banks to seek for his legal advice on how to comply with BoU’s very strict regulation requirements. Then came the closure of banks like Cooperative Bank, Kato’s ICB, Suleiman Kiggundu’s Greenland Bank in the 1990s and in all these turbulent times, Timothy Masembe Kanyerezi is the attorney BoU counted on to escape very costly litigation.
That is how banks like Sudhir Ruparelia’s Crane bank came to hire him and he indeed handled many of their transactions including the mortgage recovery dispute in which Masembe secured for Sudhir over $1.53m in damages. Of course Sudhir was to later complain in court that working for both BoU and the Commercial Banks it regulated amounted unethical conduct and conflict of interest for Masembe. The flamboyant lawyer continued leveraging on his strong relations with BoU to continue cashing in on big transactions in the banking industry. He is for instance in close relations with NC Bank whose BoD he chairs. At some point there was some dispute between him and Stanbic over fee note concerns but it was diplomatically resolved averting would be very damaging litigation process in courts. He has made many friends along the way but one of the most valuable professional friends he ever made was a one Kasozi who was the legal affairs chief at BoU. The Kasozi BoU connection always opened doors for Masembe landing lucrative clients like EADB. Kasozi later left BoU to head Stanbic’ legal department which was an additional opportunity on which Masembe leveraged to strengthen his grip on Stanbic. Masembe, who is reputed to be one of the wealthiest lawyers with money which they don’t even know what to do with, has lucratively represented BoU in copyright infringement case regarding the Shs20,000 note and in the process won over Shs6bn in costs. He has also represented Stanbic in a loan contract breach-related case and won over Shs50bn in damages; a group of banks (Centenary, EADB, Harveen Gadhoke, George Opio, Mukono Industries & Hussein Mohammed) and won over $3.4m in costs and recovered over $20m for Barclays in a mortgage dispute. He also represented ex-CJ Wako Wambuzi in a defamation suit against Red Pepper and won Shs425m in damages which remains the highest award ever in the history of defamation in Uganda. He also represented BoU in the sale of assets and liabilities of Crane Bank to DFCU prompting Sudhir to report to the president that MMAKS boss was the reason it was increasingly becoming impossible for him to reach an out of court settlement with BoU regarding his Crane Bank saga. Masembe is also very close friends with AG William Byaruhanga and they co-own many prime properties in town including Rwenzori Courts/Towers and Bugolobi Village Mall among others. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
