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By Mulengera Reporters
Geoffrey Nangumya, a renowned Kampala lawyer but now acting as a whistle blower, has written to the President demanding that he invokes his powers as CiC and have Lt. Col David Kabarebe severely punished for among other things peddling falsehoods.
Dated Wednesday 10th June, the big-name lawyer’s two page petition is aimed at responding to an earlier petition by Kabarebe communicating to the President about the need to have Nangumya and Kibuli-based Sr Counsel Willis Bashasha criminally prosecuted for frustrating the more than 1000 Mpokya/Kibale eviction victims from accessing their Shs22bn compensation award that Court directed GoU to pay them to atone their eviction from their land in the early 1990s. Kabarebe also implored the President to direct the Finance Ministry to pay the money through Mushabe, Munungu & Co Advocates and not any other law firm.
According to Kabarebe, the more than 1,000 families united under Mpokya Eviction Court Compensation Award Beneficiaries Committee and successfully sued government demanding their lawful compensation. That they eventually won the case and the Finance Ministry proceeded to pay them their Shs22bn, a process that has since stalled because of disagreements between three city law firms namely David Mushabe’s Mushabe, Munungu & Co Advocates (linked to David Sejusa), Bashasha & Co Advocates and M/s Geoffrey Nanguma & Co Advocates.
The beneficiaries themselves, of whom Kabarebe is among, got split with some showing discomfort with having Munungu as their lawyer to be especially entrusted with the Shs22bn by the finance Ministry. Lt. Col Kabarebe is among those that want the money paid through Mushabe’s law firm, something the other members don’t agree with. Kabarebe also accuses the two law firms of attempting to use the other association members as proxies to sideline him. There is also another installment of Shs10bn that was disputably wired through another city law firm called M/s Didas Nkurunziza & Co Advocates, a thing that only deepened divisions and suspicion among beneficiaries.
In his petition to the President, Nanguma faults Lt. Col Kabarebe for deliberately deceiving the President that the Shs10bn was paid to Bashasha & his law firm which he protests as untrue. He also clarifies that the two law firms or their clients (a faction of the beneficiaries) have never disputed the fact that Kabarebe is among the genuine beneficiaries as he claims in his earlier letter to the HE dated Monday 25th May 2020.
Whereas Nangumya demands that Gen Museveni uses his authority as the CiC to have Kabarebe severely punished, the mufuruki army officer also demands that the President prompts CIID and DPP to expedite the prosecution of the two law firms under GEF/02/2012 for allegedly mismanaging and embezzling over Shs10bn which the two lawyers (Bashasha & Nangumya) deny ever receiving from the finance Ministry on behalf of the more than 1000 claimants/beneficiaries.
The two warring parties’ counter petitions to HE the President come on the heels of recent social media reports that clearly seemed aimed at demonizing especially Bashasha who was portrayed as always leveraging on his deep connections in government to act improperly to achieve self-enrichment at the expense of the state of Uganda. In his petition, Nangumya accuses Lt Col Kabarebe of frustrating efforts by State House Legal Director Flora Kiconco to reconcile the warring factions so that the beneficiaries, who have waited for decades, can finally access and enjoy the benefits of their successful litigation against government.
That when Kiconco organized meetings, Lt. Col Kabarebe and his lawyers of Munungu law firm boycotted, stayed away and nothing much could be resolved in their absence. Nangumya implies that for all this defiance approach, Gen Museveni should act immediately and cause his soldier Kabarebe to be severely reprimanded. The 1992 eviction in Kibale district was aimed at preventing Bakiga immigrants from Kabale district from destroying Mpokya forest and this entire dispute has its genesis there culminating into prolonged litigation battles against government.
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