By Andrew Irumba
There is a bitter war at Bank of Uganda reportedly raging between the Governor Prof. Tumusiime Mutebile and his deputy Dr Louis Kasekende, which is threatening a smooth flow of operations at the Bank.
The said war revolves around whether BoU should return the 48 properties that Dfcu had erroneously seized from Meera Investments Ltd and their certificates of ownership, or not.
This website recently reported how Dfcu bank bosses had coiled their tails and accepted to evict themselves from properties that Crane Bank had leased from tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia’s Meera Investments Limited before it was wound up and to Dfcu by BoU.
Dfcu bank had seized the properties and even changed the certificates of titles from Meera Investments into the Bank’s names after being ill-advised by their lawyers of Sebalu, Lule and Company Advocates.
However, Sudhir and Meera Investments dragged Dfcu Bank to court, which ruled that Dfcu Bank was illegally occupying the properties and had to vacate them, on top of compensating Meera Investments for the monies lost during the time Dfcu bank was occupying their properties.
However in a twist of events, Dfcu bank this year wrote a letter to BoU, notifying them of their decision to rescind the purchase of the 48 properties that they had inherited from Crane bank. Dfcu bank also demanded that BoU should compensate them with Shs48Bn as a result of the botched deal.
So the current war at BoU is whether the 48 Properties and their titles should be returned to tycoon Sudhir as court ordered or not, and whether Dfcu Bank should be compensated as they claim or not.
As a result, two camps, one led by governor Mutebile and another by Kasekende have cropped up at BoU.
Whereas the Mutebile camp wants to do what court instructed; give the properties back to Sudhir, Kasekende’s team is vehemently against it. In the same vein, whereas Mutebile and his camp are vehemently against compensating Dfcu bank with the Shs48Bn they demand, reasoning that it would be a wastage of tax payers’ money, Kasekende’s Camp is viciously advocating for the compensation.
This disagreement has since caused a bitter split between both camps and insiders at the Bank reveal that the tension between the camps is likely to jeopardize the operations of the staff, since many of them are currently torn between siding with either Team Mutebile or Team Kasekende.
The insiders are also wondering why Kasekende is pushing for compensation of Dfcu bank with Shs48Bn tax payers’ money well-knowing that the Bank erred by seizing properties that belonged to Meera Investments. In other words, instead of Dfcu bank compensating Sudhir, the Bank wants to be compensated and Kasekende’s push for the same has raised eyebrows.
The group that hobnobbed with Dfcu to illegally acquire Sudhir’s property is now afraid of the repercussions, a trend which sources say, has left the Central bank in tatters.
But insiders reveal that the fights have also indicated claims that battle lines between Mutebile and Kasekende have been drawn, with the left wing where Kasekende sits and right wing which houses Mutebile are no go areas for visitors or staff that work in offices of both principals.
