Ono Bwino online can exclusively report that the outgoing Chief Justice Owiny Dollo has surrendered the role of being a mediator to bring together the family of the fallen controversial tycoon Dr Muhammad Buwule Kasasa and that of the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi on table to resolve their longstanding legal battle over multibillion Mutungo hill land out of Court.
Exclusively speaking to one of the beneficiaries of Dr Kasasa’s estate, they confirmed the development explaining that Chief Justice’s decision resulted from her family’s decision as the beneficiaries to end the mediations insisting that there was nothing to mediate.
They noted that the contested land is owned by their father who went through all sorts of intimidation and torture brought upon him by his tormenters to the point of his death even after winning them in court up to the Supreme Court.
“Majority of the children agreed with our family lawyers that there is nothing to mediate even though there were some of our brothers and sisters who were compromised and wanted to proceed with the mediation. The good news is, the majority took the day,” one of Dr Kasasa’s daughter said.
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She added that the file is going to return back to the Supreme Court for further management and insisted that Kabaka Mutebi’s family has no claim on the said land.
In October, a section of Dr Kasasa’s beneficiaries led by Dr Nulu Nakabonge Kasasa, Dean Badru Buwule, Akram Kaye Kasasa and Joy Nakanyike Kasasa protested the mediations and a deal to share more than a square mailo land equally with the administrators of the Estate of the late Sir Edward Walugembe Mutesa, father to Kabaka Mutebi.
“We write with the utmost respect for your office to formally protest the Supreme Court’s referral of the long-standing Mutungo Hill dispute to mediation. This case, which concerns the estate of the late Dr Muhammad Buwule Kasasa, has been the subject of over two decades of litigation. The referral to mediation is not only procedurally irregular but also subverts multiple, conclusive judicial rulings that have already affirmed Dr Kasasa’s rightful and indefeasible ownership of the land in question,” the children’s protest letter read in part.
The land in question is situated on Kyadondo Block 237 plot 178 and 388 at Mutungo Hill Nakawa Division a Kampala suburb measuring more than 600 acres and according to the protest letter, Kasasa and Kabaka Mutebi’s family have been in Court for more than 20 years battling over who is the rightful owner.
The protest letter cited grave concerns of institutional bias and conflict of interest which taint the mediation process.
Dr Kasasa’s children insisted that Dollo cannot be directly mediating a dispute involving parties like the judiciary and the monarch with whom he has deep historical ties because it creates an appearance of bias and potential breach of the right to fair and impartial hearing guaranteed under Article 28(1) of the Constitution.
They further protested the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka’s involvement into the meditations on behalf of the government yet he is a founding partner of K&K Advocates, a law firm which is representing the Estate of Muteesa and Kabaka Mutebi officially and personally is clear conflict of interest.
“His participation is clear conflict of interest and contravenes the ethical obligations outlined in the Advocates Act (Cap. 267). Furthermore, the Attorney General has no legal standing in the land ownership dispute between the two estates, his role is confined to the separate compensation suit 9HCCS NO.227 of 2005) filed by the Muteesa estate against the government,” the protest letter further read.
Kasasa’s children maintained that the said mediations were not a neutral process but rather an extrajudicial effort to reverse the conclusive court rulings.
They added that the process was ignoring Kasasa’s express wishes and harmed the very beneficiaries of his estate citing the sidelining of the appointed specific legal advisors who were given the right to oversee his estate particularly concerning Mutungo land.
“This adviser has been completely ignored in the settlement talks, a violation of Section 180 of the Succession Act (Cap. 162). Any agreement reached without this advisor’s involvements is procedurally defective and likely invalid,” the letter read.
The children further accused Dollo of sidelining them in the ongoing mediations insisting that the majority of them are not in agreement with the settlement, adding that there are credible reports that the estate is being mismanaged by some children of the deceased and other dependents have been left without basic provision of education, shelter and healthcare.
They also wanted the mandatory inclusion of Kasasa’s named legal advisers in any and all discussions concerning his estate as required by his will and succession Act.
“The Commissioning of an independent forensic audit of the estate to ensure its assets are protected and that Kasasa’s heirs and beneficiaries receive the provisions they are entitled to,” the letter read.
Before the mediations collapsed, this website had seen a Memorandum of Understanding which was prepared by K&K Advocates which had not yet been signed where parties agreed to share Kasasa’s properties 50-50.
According to these documents, the Attorney General’s chambers were involved in the deal because government institutions like the Offices of the External Security Organisation (ESO), schools and other highly guarded security installations are situated on the contested land.
The development comes at a time when Kasasa’s personal lawyer who is also a State Minister for Lands Dr Sam Mayanja recently told this website that his client died in absolute poverty after failing to get proper medications even though he own a multibillion empire courtesy of his tormenters who using their power and influence sabotaged all avenues he had to get money for proper medical care.
He explained that even though he petitioned the president, who in turn directed Ramathan Ggoobi the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and secretary to treasury to release part of the Shs30bn that Kasasa was demanding government, Kabaka Mutebi’s family lawyers protested the move and the money was not released.
Kabaka Mutebi, his younger brother Prince David Kintu Wasajja and their sister Nnaalinnya Sarah Kagere who are the administrators of the estate of their father insist that Kasasa fraudulently obtained Mutungo hill land and even contested the evidence he brought showing that he bought the contested land from the bank when Kabaka was in the exile.
The matter has been in court but at all lower levels of this country’s court system, Kasasa has floored Mutebi and his siblings. The matter is now at the Supreme Court which will have the final say.
Before his death, Kasasa insisted that he bought the said land from Barclays Bank currently Absa and before he bought it, it was transferred from Mutesa, to Benjamin Kwemalamala a top tycoon in Masaka who mortgaged it and later registered it in the names of Victoria Properties Limited.
