One on One with Common Sense: What really Motivate Judges to throw Billions to Self-confessed Bank Robbers!

By Stephen Kasozi Muwambi

Opinion: Courtesy demands that I congratulate city businessman and Federal Republic of Nepal Consul to Uganda, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia. The tycoon last week pulled off yet another ‘victory’ against Bank of Uganda.

The Supreme Court justices unanimously blocked the already executed process of liquidating Crane Bank Limited (CBL) possibly because it’s dead and rotten. The justices further ruled that the regulator erred to place CBL under receivership against a court order stopping the process.

Following the verdict, I sought out the lately uncommon gentleman, Mr. Common Sense for his views. Fortunately, I got him in the mood of talking. He made quite interesting observations and powerful submissions using simple words and examples. The views are exclusively his and I am a mere messengers of them. Enjoy the voyage.

Mr. Common Sense starts by teaching how he is in very short supply lately, especially in the judicial corridors. He explains that just because he is common and priceless, just like oxygen, people tend to take him for granted and herein lies the big tragedy! He says because people ignore him, it has led to all manner of tribulations the world is facing today. I ask him to expound, but he advises me to be patient, that what he is about to tell me will take care of that.

He starts by telling me in simple terms what the pompous justices meant by the verdict they wrote. He avers that in closing Crane Bank, the Regulator acted just like a Doctor who rightly removes the life support machine from a patient in a comatose state. He goes deep to demonstrate how actually the midwife, in this case Sudhir, killed the baby called Crane Bank Limited (CBL).

You ought to note that he uses the word baby figuratively. He explains the midwife did so by cutting the umbilical cord from the baby. While it is common knowledge babies feed and receive oxygen and blood from the mother via the umbilical code, Common Sense labors again, to remind me of the fact.

Having laid that background for me, he proceeds to confirm to me how the midwife actually killed the baby. “It was simple, though cruel my boy. The midwife removed the umbilical code worth a total of UGX397Bn from the baby. After the fact, CBL lost the lifeline and like the hapless baby it indeed was, there was no way it was going to survive in the circumstances.”

He stresses that whether the Doctors, in this scenario BOU, kept CBL on oxygen in that comatose state or not, none of the two decisions had the slightest like hood of saving it since the midwife had killed it anyway. Away from that, Common Sense demonstrates the magnitude of the recklessness committed by the midwife. “CBL required only an umbilical code worth only UGX25Bn to survive but the midwife deprived it the same. He actually cut more codes worth UGX397Bn, a figure capable of keeping alive a dozen set of babies.”

Common Sense would then wonder why none of the people concerned is showing any interest in the heist the midwife committed! “It is interesting to see the midwife bump fisting and laughing violently while continuing to hold onto the loot  unhindered,” fumes Common Sense, now clearly agitated.

Imputing bad motive on part of the law enforcers, he jokes; “You live in an intriguing world. In my world, I reign absolutely. Bank robbers aren’t given any slightest chance to move freely as if everything they did is fine. I make life very painful for bank robbers. We don’t even celebrate them; lest we alert young people it is all fine,” his words drip with sarcasm.

Common Sense tells me heists of the magnitude committed against CBL, not only end up rocking the bank involved, but also the banking sector as a whole and counting. It has a multiplier effect. The banking sector loses since people lose the motivation to do business with them. The people keeping the cash in holes or tins also lose. They tend to spend it since it is available 24/7. This denies them opportunity to save the funds to engage in income generating activities.

With the people not banking, Common Sense lectures has it, the businesses lose liquidity since they too, ordinarily borrow from banks. The government loses account of contracted savings. The banking sector deprived of enough liquidity cannot obviously remit meaningful taxes to the government, nor can new investors be motivated to invest in a country where saving culture is low. I remind him about the court injunction which stopped the doctors from putting CBL off oxygen and burying the same!

He reminds me too, that the injunction is cynical since the midwife had killed the baby anyway. “Sensible doctors don’t keep going on and on pumping oxygen into corpses,” he maintains emphatically. He admits the midwife walked out of the Supreme Court with billions in costs. But he quickly reminds me the taxpayers are the ones going to pay the dimes. Other than that, Common Sense informs me, since the baby was buried by closing and placing it under receivership, the injunction followed the same to the grave.

What the midwife is left with is the blank Cheque handed to him by the justices, giving him the leeway to cite the doctors for contempt. But also, since the liquidation has been stopped, the midwife can for the time being keep the assets of CBL not yet auctioned for purposes of realizing funds to pay off creditors. He can use the blank Cheque to milk more from the taxpayers.

Common Sense however informs me all isn’t lost since doctors are still in court trying to recover the main umbilical code of UGX397Bn the midwife deprived of baby CBL. Given the fact that the midwife admitted depriving the baby of the same, and in black and white for that matter, Common Sense submit powerfully,  the doctors’ case could turn out to be the huge whale which will finally swallow the midwife.

But he further tells me to tell the taxpayers not to jubilate prematurely. He submits that they instead should go down on their knees in prayer beseeching the Almighty to prevail on the justices not to end up conjuring up procedural excuses to defeat the confession the midwife himself authored. Common Sense signals to me to remain seated for a couple of minutes. He tells me he can’t leave before delivering his own version of judgment in the matter.

Common Sense Verdict:

I will reproduce the verdict verbatim and it goes thus; “I find the midwife guilty of deliberately killing baby CBL for the reasons I have articulated above. I direct as I hereby do that the midwife surrenders the main umbilical code since in our culture, it is jealously guarded.

The midwife must also pay interest applicable, damages for failing in the duty of care, for betraying the baby, for stealing from the baby and for converting things meant for the baby. The midwife is further directed to pay damages for using proxies to steal from CBL, for using proxies to pass off as shareholders of CBL, for influencing CBL staff to engage in crime for his benefit and for denying his confession.

I acquit the doctors forthwith unless held on other charges. They commendably moved in quickly and decently buried CBL. The midwife had killed it yet he wanted to keep the dead body mockingly. For emphasis’ sake, if the doctors had not buried CBL, chances are high it was going to end up emitting a stench that could have surely contaminated the atmosphere in the national coffers.

The Doctor did the right thing in my view since the stench was going to adulterate the oxygen from which the justices too, draw a living. I SO ORDER. But before taking leave of this matter, I have a few words of counsel to volunteer to the Doctor. Never again splash money on comatose like you did in the case. Hesitating taking comatose to their final home is not only disrespectful of the dead but also unnecessarily bleeds the national coffers which is what actually happened.

This kind of indecision further gives the culprits, time to compromise witnesses and anyone else capable of spilling beans, investigators and some judicial officers. It allows culprits a lifeline to sponsor disappearances of key witnesses and accomplices, destroy evidence, break in government offices to steal documents containing fiction shareholders, alter ownership of properties owned by the deceased, rob billions of cash left behind by the deceased, stash away such robbed cash in quick developments and to write off debts due to the deceased taken by the culprits themselves… my host now taps on the table to signal yours truly ‘it’s time up.’ We rise up, exchange pleasantries and part ways.