Maria Kiwanuka – The Investigator News https://theinvestigatornews.com More than Just News Thu, 07 Jul 2022 21:11:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://theinvestigatornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cropped-ms-icon-310x310-32x32.png Maria Kiwanuka – The Investigator News https://theinvestigatornews.com 32 32 Mohan Kiwanuka Family Tales: Court finds errant son Jordan Kiwanuka criminally liable before throwing him out of family properties https://theinvestigatornews.com/2021/03/mohan-kiwanuka-family-tales-court-finds-errant-son-jordan-kiwanuka-criminally-liable-before-throwing-him-out-of-family-properties/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mohan-kiwanuka-family-tales-court-finds-errant-son-jordan-kiwanuka-criminally-liable-before-throwing-him-out-of-family-properties Mon, 22 Mar 2021 16:10:29 +0000 https://theinvestigatornews.com/?p=1567 KAMPALA, Uganda: Two years down the road, court has finally found Jordan Ssebuliba Kiwanuka, the errant ‘son’ to city tycoon Mohan Kiwanuka, guilty and criminally liable of a couple of offences. And for that matter, the same has issued orders to have the convict thrown out of two properties he’s been occupying illegally for over ten years, the Investigator can authoritatively report.

At least over 60 police officers backed up auctioneers this afternoon into action to evict Jordan from both Seven Trees, a luxury facility premised in Folio 20, plot 21-29 along Golf Course road in Kololo and, from his offices situated at Plot 10 Akii Bua Avenue in Nakasero. In a surprise development however, it emerged today that Kiwanuka, as he has always stated, has had no interest in evicting Jordan’s mother Beatrice as hitherto claimed. This explains how this instance was created by Jordan and company, just to attract public sympathy.

The Preamble 

For the last eighteen months now, Kiwanuka has been battling for his properties which, Jordan has occupied for years without remitting any dimes to the companies that own the same. He started by personally engaging the defiant Jordan before he handed the matter to his lawyers and finally, court.

The long awaited justice emerged in the face of the tycoon after his estranged son failed to convince four different courts and judges to his side hence miserably losing all the cases some of which he himself had filed in pursuit to throw his father out of his hard earned wealth. Court documents available indicate that Jordan committed fraud vide forgery as well as abuse of office among a string of charges, in order to gift himself the company properties.

He and his other siblings went to court claiming that Kiwanuka had gifted them the ‘matrimonial’ properties but had become too enfeebled to remember, judging that the old man was allegedly suffering from dementia and other illnesses. He further prayed to court to find his father of unsound mind and instead, donate him management of all the family properties.

Along the way, court questioned Jordan’s status under which he wanted to take over what he called marital properties yet he wasn’t a spouse to Kiwanuka. To curb this conundrum, he adjusted the plaint to add his mother. But this didn’t take long as court again found out that the same had separated with Kiwanuka in 1989. This aside, the mother too was found to harbor a strange medical history.

He then elected to carry out a media campaign full of vicious false stories that demeaned and defamed the old man trying to protect his business interests. Sick and tired of the son’s disobedience, and insolence, Kiwanuka had at one point written to Jordan, assuring him how he had not a single right to claim a single property of his. Below is the letter Kiwanuka penned Jordan to spark off the two yearlong battle.

DEMAND FOR VACANT POSSESSION FRV FOLIO 20 PLOT 21-29 GOLF COURSE ROAD, KOLOLO AND PLOT 10 AKII BUA AVENUE NAKASERO.

I have been forced to pen this missive to you to make you understand my reasons behind the position I have taken with regard to my above properties among others. You should know me well enough by now to understand that under any other circumstances, I would not have to explain my reasons to you or anybody else for that matter.

The reasons I am doing this is because you decided to blow my decision to take back my properties out of proportion and to portray me amongst your siblings and other relatives as being inconsiderate and unreasonable, which is not true.

You will recall that you moved into the above properties without my knowledge and or permission, which no other sibling of yours has ever done. You occupied those properties for the last ten (10) years on commercial basis generating money therefrom without any accountability and without paying rent.

You knew from the beginning that I acquired those properties as commercial investments and not charity. On several occasions, I have verbally asked you in a parental manner to make arrangements to return the properties back to me for proper management but you turned a deaf ear. It is therefore not true that the notice from my lawyers came unexpectedly or was a surprise. You knew I needed you out of these properties many years back.

I was taken aback recently when you dared to suggest to my face that I should close up and sell my factory! Jordan, I was greatly disappointed and hurt. You cannot fathom where I have come from to achieve whatever I have achieved and for you, you have the audacity to dare to suggest that I should sell my factory because in your view, I can no longer manage to run it, was an insult to say the least.

In light of your ill-advised actions, I have come to learn how you have been trying to influence my staff behind my back to stop them from working on Saturdays and how you deducted payments from the security staff without you declaring it. This is a direct interference with my workers and intermeddling in my work which I cannot continue to tolerate.

Badly floored: Jordan Ssebuliba Kiwanuka

After your ill-fated advice or directive for the sale of my factory, you instigated people who claimed to be KCCA enforcements people to come to the factory on or about the 21st May 2019 and threatened to close the factory for unpaid dues.

Fortunately I had previously given a payment schedule to KCCA which they had accepted but their response was received at your office and [you] never forwarded to me. There are a number of other unpleasant incidents I could mention but I hope the above gives you a sense of my feelings and the reasons behind my decision.

I gave you the best education and upbringing just like all your siblings. In return, I have not seen any particular moment where you have shown care for me, your father but only insatiable desire to grab whatever you can lay your hands on.

Lastly, I want you and your siblings to know that I made my investments on my own business instincts which most people could not appreciate at the time but turned out as well as I had anticipated. I now need those properties and it will be decent of you to hand them back to me without the embarrassment of resorting to auctioneers or any other forceful methods for that matter. By copy of this letter, my lawyers are hereby instructed to follow through my instructions to the letter.” Wrote the old man two years ago.

Unfortunately, Jordan never took heed of his father’s missive and parental guide and indeed, like the old man predicted, it today ended via “the embarrassment of resorting to auctioneers and other forceful methods.” Watch this space for the chronology of how it unfolded right from ‘A’ to ‘Z’…

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Fools too Dream: The year’s tale of Mohan Kiwanuka’s prodigal son and Museveni’s empty walk to corruption https://theinvestigatornews.com/2019/12/fools-too-dream-the-years-tale-of-mohan-kiwanukas-prodigal-son-and-musevenis-empty-walk-to-corruption/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fools-too-dream-the-years-tale-of-mohan-kiwanukas-prodigal-son-and-musevenis-empty-walk-to-corruption Wed, 25 Dec 2019 16:08:47 +0000 https://theinvestigatornews.com/?p=858 Opinion: What is the American dream? Is it only for the Americans, or is it a dream for everyone? Essentially, the American dream is constituted if one has job security, insurance where it applies, a complete conventional family, a luxurious house in a fancy neighborhood and enough money to get by for the rest of one’s life.

But it is not the dream that matters because, you see, anyone can dream. Martin Luther had a dream that the Black Americans would be free, and Idi Amin had a dream that all Asians had to go! Even fools dream, nothing special to it. But that doesn’t stop one from dreaming.

I personally dream of a Uganda where we shall at one time have a peaceful change of power. I dream that there may come a time when the Ugandan system of governance is genuine, without corruption and with service above standard. That we shall at one time have a president who will not purport to fight corruption by walking but by using the organs and authority at his or her disposal to combat it.

However, the biggest of my dreams, is that there will come a time when all will realise that nothing material is of value. All that we gain can be lost; even those we obtained at birth. The final accountability is done when we answer to the creator’s call for our actions here. That no matter how much money one accrues, it is of no value to them after passing. These are the things that King Solomon called vanity. It is the things that we do which make us immortal; not what we look like, what we have or who we know.

Here is a bothering question that is the inspiration of the submission herein. Why would a son betray the trust of a father for financial gain? One may say, ‘Dah! Money is money!’; whatever the implication of that is! It is not only among the wealthy that it is common but also families in the low economic ranks. Provided there is property worth fighting for, the blood thins, and families will armor up. It is innate of humans that we seek to gain the world and lose ourselves.

This year, the family of the entrepreneurial titan, Mohan Kiwanuka, got faced with a conundrum orchestrated by a son who is seemingly unappreciative of the labor of the father. Mohan Mohammad Kiwanuka was reportedly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease with on set dementia in 2017. This was followed by several questionable occurrences whose details were broken by, and covered in The Investigator.

It was eventually discovered that the mogul’s son, Jordan Sebuliba Kiwanuka, from the ‘first wife’ Beatrice Luyiga Kavuma, had taken advantage of the father’s diagnosis and attempted to take control over the father’s reigns. He dingily pleaded with courts of law to declare his father a person of unsound mind and he himself be declared the estate proprietor. That he is not his biological son, is a known claim made by Mzee Mohan.

Nevertheless, he swung the narrative in his favor portraying the father to be in a vegetative state and incapable of managing his entities. However, in Mohan Musisi Kiwanuka v Jordan Sebuliba Kiwanuka MISC APP 622/2019 case, Hon. Justice Musa Ssekaana ruled that the father is still in charge of his mental faculties, hence dismissing the case with costs.

Hon. Justice Ssekaana’s ruling was reechoed in Jordan Sebuliba & Anor v Visa Investments Ltd & Anor Civil Suit No. 253/19 where another plaint regarding the same matter, by the principle of res judicata, was disregarded by Justice Godfrey Namundi. The son had obviously gone at lengths to ensure that he discredits the father’s managerial capabilities as caused by the alleged diagnosis.

He went as far as leading the public to believe that Mohan’s official wife, Maria Nabasirye Kiwana Kiwanuka, had a clawed grip on Mohan whose decisions and choices she was controlling. This was of course discredited and debunked by another story published by The Investigator. In this, the author showed that Mohan had been capable of holding his own throughout the one and half hour’s interview.

Coming to the question! In my opinion, of course based off my meager understanding of their family affairs but on the stronger issues they placed before the courts of law, the answer may be derived from comprehension of our human nature. We are a greedy species with the capability of achieving the impossible.

We are not directed by instinct but rather by intuition and reason. We are in full control of our choices, decisions and actions. Thus, even though we are in nature, greedy creatures, we still have the power of self-control. Arguments have been made that this power is what separates us from animals. So, we ought to employ it often.

As humans, we have the potential to be anything at birth. It doesn’t matter that you are African, if you are raised in China, you will speak their language and adopt their culture. Therefore, it is through the process of growth that one achieves the ability to employ their power of self-control. Without proper upbringing, an individual may be unable to form a conscience and founded moral principles.

Yet, I do not believe that upbringing makes or breaks the individual. There is only so much that a parent can do. In my opinion, which might I remind you, is based off meager understanding, it amounts to the experiences of the individual and their capability to use the knowledge, principles and virtues imparted, to act. This is all the parent ought to do. Impart into the child the proper principles, virtues and knowledge. The experience of the child determines how these will be applied.

Without guiding the child through his or her experiences, they might have a misguided perception of the world. However, as I said, I would not pin Jordan’s character on the upbringing. There are still people who can do good even having had no proper guidance. Could Mohan’s situation have been avoided? I think so! In life, if you change one substantial factor, twilight turns into new-moon night darkness in the blink of an eye.

Mohan’s actions could not cause substantial changes, were they to have been different. At the time of vandalizing the premises on Plot 10, Akii Bua Road in Nakasero, Jordan was already the person he is. If anyone’s actions are to be substantive, it should be those of the son. The question of whether things might have been different is not answered by the occurrences of the last few years or even by the diagnosis. It is answered by determining the kind of person that Jordan is.

It wouldn’t have mattered had Mohan Kiwanuka been a middle-income class citizen. There is a claim among the older generation against the younger generation, curbed the “millennials”. This claim portrays the people in this generation as entitled, ungrateful, lazy and vultures. In different respects, this is all true. Though it is unlikely that one individual will have all these qualities. We often have only one and thankfully, lack the others. However, we have our strengths; the best of which is our innovativeness.

They may not admit it, but the old chaps can never be as innovative as the millennial lads and lasses. This kind of innovation pushes ambition. Jordan Sebuliba Kiwanuka is a millennial. One with so much ambition but unwilling to satisfy that effort through modest means. From the looks of it, he is in nature, a lazy ungrateful entitled vulture.

It is difficult to say for sure if things would have been different given the boy’s nature. But the question isn’t that. I do not think that it’s the father’s reported diagnosis which drove Jordan’s attempt to scoop the fruits of the old man’s labor.

Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise for the Kiwanuka family. Mohan has had a chance to see what most parents miss. Often, it is after the parent’s death that the children attempt to gobble the family wealth. For Mr. Kiwanuka, he can now change what might have been chaos in the wake of his death. The fundamental change in the case of the Kiwanuka family wouldn’t be of actions but of the son’s nature.

It is immaterial what Mohan Kiwanuka would have done differently. It is also established herein that Jordan Sebuliba is incapable of doing things any differently from how he did. Thus, it would require Mr. Ssebuliba’s nature to have been different if this were all to have been avoided. It is sad but, perhaps we are born either saintly or evil. No matter the path which one takes, it always leads to their true being!

Have a blessed festive season and a sobriety 2020.

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Mohan Kiwanuka family tales: Tycoon again floors insolent son Jordan as the young Lawyer face costs staggering in billions https://theinvestigatornews.com/2019/11/mohan-kiwanuka-family-tales-tycoon-again-floors-insolent-son-jordan-as-the-young-lawyer-face-costs-staggering-in-billions/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mohan-kiwanuka-family-tales-tycoon-again-floors-insolent-son-jordan-as-the-young-lawyer-face-costs-staggering-in-billions Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:59:48 +0000 https://theinvestigatornews.com/?p=789 KAMPALA, Uganda: Jordan Ssebuliba Kiwanuka has lost the second bid in which he sought to hold sway on his dad, Mohan Musisi Kiwanuka’s vast business empire comprising of prime properties in Kololo and other leafy parts of Kampala, the Investigator reports.

Jordan lost the first such bid when he sought to have his father declared a man of unsound mind. By this move, the estranged son sought to have his father removed from the management of his life-time investments and have the same placed into his (Jordan’s) hands or another person appointed by court.

But Justice Musa Ssekaana of the High Court Civil Division dismissed such application by Jordan reasoning that he had failed to justify his dire craving to have his dad undergo a compulsory mental test. The judge noted that allowing Mr. Ssebuliba’s application would not only break Uganda’s laws, but it would also stretch to international statutes that protect people presumed to have disabilities.

In his wisdom, the Justice Ssekaana ruled thus; “Nobody should be adjudged to be an idiot. It would be defamatory to drag someone living peacefully and let them to dementia tests. It would be absurd to take a man doing his business peacefully for by impairment tests.”

He added: “Court interviewed him (Kiwanuka) and he spoke softly, sometimes bringing jokes. His lawyers and those of the respondent were present and in one session, I interviewed him alone, one-on-one. Court’s judgment is that he has no problem and this case is dismissed.”

As if that was not enough, Jordan filed another case at the Family Section of the High Court seeking to stop his father from evicting him out of the property situate on plot 10-12 along Aki Bua road in Kololo. Court would hear that before his father told him to pack up and leave the property, Jordan had been running his legal chambers at the property for a decade.

Occupying the property Jordan did, alongside renting part of it out to other individuals without remitting a penny to the old man and or to Visa Investments which, legally owns the estate, but above all, he reportedly never made any attempts to effect necessary improvement on the property.

Nevertheless, the Makindye premised Family Court Judge, Godfrey Namundi has this Tuesday ruled Jordan out of order by maintaining that Mohan was quite in order when he wrote to Jordan on behalf of Visa Investments, to find space elsewhere. The judge tasked Jordan to pay rent for the ten years he has been using space at the building as well as account for billions of cash he has been receiving from tenants for that time.

Mohan asked Jordan to leave in order for him to renovate the building with the view of finding serious tenants to rent it out to. But no sooner had Jordan received the eviction order than he resisted moving on and instead resorted to frustrating the man he calls his father by taking on the now useless legal process.

Not only did Jordan refused to leave but he even proceeded and asked Court to have his dad pay compensation to him for allegedly taking care of his own mother (Jordan’s), Beatrice Luyiga Kavuma for ten years.  Much as Beatrice is the mother of Jordan, he (Jordan) reasoned that it was the responsibility of his dad to take care of her.

This is, notwithstanding the fact that Jordan is a well trained lawyer on top of which, that it actually is Mohan who paid his tuition all through to University. On top of that Jordan has for ten years now been collecting rent from properties owned by his father without remitting a penny as well as using another space of the properties to run a profitable leisure business without paying a penny.

In his prayer for damages, Jordan had estimated his income at the Seven Trees leisure facility at well over Shs600M annually. It is yet unknown whether his victorious father would go by the same figures to ask back.

Away from these legal battles, Kiwanuka has severally insisted that actually, Ssebuliba is not his biological son. I just helped him as I have done to other children but I know, just like him and his mother knows, that he is not my son,” Kiwanuka had told the Investigator in an Interview at the beginning of these tales (Please click for the said Interview). Watch this space…  

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Mohan Kiwanuka Decries Police interference as disputed son re-launches plot to claim his multi-billion properties https://theinvestigatornews.com/2019/10/mohan-kiwanuka-decries-police-interference-as-disputed-son-re-launches-plot-to-claim-his-multi-billion-properties/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mohan-kiwanuka-decries-police-interference-as-disputed-son-re-launches-plot-to-claim-his-multi-billion-properties Mon, 21 Oct 2019 21:48:58 +0000 https://theinvestigatornews.com/?p=715 KAMPALA, Uganda: After making ludicrous assertions that the man he claims to be his biological father is of unsound mind, city lawyer Jordan Kiwanuka Ssebuliba is now involving the Uganda Police Force in his quest to hold onto tycoon Mohan Kiwanuka’s vast properties, some located in the prime Kololo, Nakasero as well as Naguru areas.

The Investigator can exclusively report that Mohan woke up on October 10th to find armed members of the Uganda Police deployed at three of his properties in Nakasero and Kololo. The properties in question are comprised in Plots 10A and 10B in upper Nakasero as well as Plots 21-29 Golf Course Road in Kololo.

Mohan had scheduled the day for purposes of handing over the properties to new tenants after the High court disallowed Jordan’s request to move him out of his business empire and instead appoint him the chief administrator. Jordan was hitherto using space at one of the properties for his law chambers known as AEGIS while he is renting out the rest.

Mohan accuses Jordan of collecting rent as well as occupying his buildings for ten years without remitting any penny to him. The rent said to be due and owing from Jordan is assessed to be in billions of shillings. This is one of the reasons, the other being that at 43, Jordan is a mature man capable of fending for himself.

And it is not to mention the reported contention that he is not his legitimate son. The tycoon wants him (Jordan) to vacate his properties so that he can renovate and rent them out for family purposeful gain. After police entered the fray, Mohan wrote to the Inspector of Police of Police Martin Okoth Ocholla seeking to know where the force he heads derives the authority to invade his private property.

“We strongly protest the actions of the Police to invade a private property without lawful basis. We further would like to be informed of what interest the Police may have in our properties,” Mohan writes, meticulously putting to shame his ‘son’s claims that he is of unsound mind.

The property mogul goes on to warn Police that he would be dragging them to court if he doesn’t hear from them soon, as far as the interference in the private matter is concerned. The protest is copied to the area MP as well as Ocholla’s Deputy, Sabiiti Muzeeyi.

Jordan has been untiring in holding onto Mohan’s business empire. He started by going to court to have the old man declared to be of unsound mind. The trick was to have his ‘father’ out of his businesses. This was after Mohan issued Jordan an eviction order on account of mismanagement of the properties.

Jordan lost the court endeavor in this regard. He then sought to stop the repossession and renovation of Plot 10 and Plot B along Aki Bua Road in Nakasero as well as other properties on Golf Course road, but Justice Musa Ssekana ruled against him.

This could be the reason why he is now desperately using the Uganda Police to further his apparently illegal action of holding onto property that is owned by another man, whether his father not withstanding since he himself is of age.

But even before deploying Police, Jordan had tried to use Kampala Capital City Authority to stop Mohan from evicting him to pave way for the renovation of the properties in question. This is evidenced by a letter he wrote to KCCA on October 3rd asking the authority to halt any development on the properties. Jordan’s such bid failed though.

The Director Physical Planning of KCCA, Moses K. Atwiine wrote back on October 8th telling him that he could not interfere in the matter since Justice Musa Ssekaana had found no merit in his objections before. This was in reference to Ssekaana’s rulings issued on September 18th and September 27th 2019. We contend that the lawyer in Jordan ought to have known better than going behind High Court in a bid to obtain parallel orders.

The above maneuvers aside, there have also been attempts by people on Jordan’s ship to play to the gallery. For instance, his mother, Beatrice Luyiga Kavuma has since issued a missive to the press saying his son and other children are victims of Mohan’s other wife, Maria Kiwanuka, the former minister of finance.

They claim Maria wants to grab the family wealth all by herself. Though without proven evidence, Beatrice alleges that it is Maria who has been ordering Mohan around with the view of grabbing all his properties. According to Beatrice, Mohan is a man of unsound mind and that Maria has since taken advantage of the old man’s supposed ill health to lay claim to the family wealth. “This is far-fetched an accusation since Maria hasn’t shown interest in any properties,” said a friend.

And Mohan also strongly denies these accusations saying he is the one in the driving seat as far as his businesses are concerned and that he is vested with all the legal rights to manage his properties. “By pleading to Court to declare me a vegetable in a bid to grab family properties, Jordan declares me a dead man. I will show him I am alive and kicking,” the soft-spoken tycoon is quoted telling several friends thronging his Prince Drive premised home in Kololo.

Efforts to reach the Uganda Police Force’s mouthpiece Fred Enanga were futile as he was reported busy on a Talk Show. Also, IGP Okoth Ocholla and the Deputy Muzeeyi Sabiiti were unreachable as their known numbers went through unanswered all the time we tried them before filing this report.

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The Mohan Family Tales: Tycoon Mohan Kiwanuka finally speaks out about his family empire turbulence, writes to Son https://theinvestigatornews.com/2019/09/the-mohan-family-tales-tycoon-mohan-kiwanuka-finally-speaks-out-on-his-family-empire-turbulence-writes-to-son/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-mohan-family-tales-tycoon-mohan-kiwanuka-finally-speaks-out-on-his-family-empire-turbulence-writes-to-son Thu, 12 Sep 2019 22:22:14 +0000 http://theinvestigatornews.com/?p=611 On Friday last week, the Investigator broke the now trending story of property mogul and renowned Oscar Industries CEO, Mohan Musisi Kiwanuka’s family unrest arising from reported impasse between his wife Maria Kiwanuka and son Jordan Ssebuliba over his property. In the story titled ‘Maria’s Dirty Linen’: Unbearable agony as X-Minister Maria Kiwanuka uses Husband’s vegetative state to swindle family property’, it was reported that actually, Kiwanuka’s wife Maria was taking advantage of her husband’s dementia ailment to have him sign documents ranging from selling several of his property to evicting his old children and their mother Beatrice Kavuma from their work and residential premises. Through a family friend, Mr. Kiwanuka on Tuesday invited the Investigator CEO Stanley Ndawula to his Kololo home for an exclusive interview and below, are the excerpts.

Time check is 9:38am when the gates to the palatial home at Plot 15, Prince Charles Drive Kololo Hill, opens for our entry. In the compound, two other guests appear from their moderate cars to join us (me and my colleague George). One is familiar. He’s Eagle Online boss Richard Wanambwa. We later learn both are close family friends. In the living room, a popular face of a lady elegantly dressed in a maroon linen suit with a true morning smile emerges from the inner corridors. Upon pleasantries, she announces that “The Chairman (Mohan Kiwanuka as addressed by all in the house), would join us shortly,” The lady is tycoon Mohan Musisi Kiwanuka’s wife, Maria Nabasirye Kiwana Kiwanuka.

Indeed, in a minute, the average size, tall, dark-skinned and cheery human structure of tycoon Mohan Kiwanuka gently walks in. Dressed in a brown pair of trousers and unbuttoned jacket calmly lying on a cream shirt smartly tacked into a well-pressed pair of slacks, he stretches out his hand to greet each of us; “I’m Mohan, you’re all most welcome. Please take your seats,” he permits. Cross-legged with both hands resting on his laps, he calmly beckons one of the two visitors to proceed.

The reason for this meeting is for the Investigator website to get the other side of Mohan’s story right from the horse’s mouth, the visitor (names withheld on request) announces before he asks me to take the floor. “It is in regard to the story of your family unrest Mr. Kiwanuka. In just about three years, you’re reportedly putting almost all your property on market. Why this abrupt?” I shoot my first question.

The story

The visibly calm, well composed Mohan clears his voice, sits up in his leather couch and points towards us, swinging his finger sideways, “The problem starts from that chair. That’s where Jordan rests in his free time when he’s here. We look at that position as his in this house. He is the author of the said unrest in my family,” he says, carefully picking his words and checking his tone, then he pauses…

“You see, when you retire home with Shs50, it is not the same amount you have in the morning. It is of course less, so I never keep money, neither do I bank it. I keep all my money in land. The population increase but land stays. The more people increase, the more land gains value. When I need liquid money, I point nowhere but my land… that’s where I get money to do other things that require cash.”

The visitor interjects, trying to show the need for money to settle the several debts at hand…, but I don’t let him as I signal Mohan to tell his own story… “Of course, sure, as any other serious businessman, I have debts and I use money from land to clear them. All my life time, I have been paying my debts using money from my properties and even Jordan knows it because he has signed on some sale agreements before when he was still a signatory,” he stops, his lightly squeezed eyes roaming through us, probably to see his message sinking in as he waits for another shoot.

“But Jordan is representing his siblings and their mother Beatrice whom you also want to throw out of the marital home! Don’t you have other assets to sell than hers?” He looks at me as if reading his answer from my forehead… “Mr. Ndawula, first, you have misplaced the word ‘marital home’ because I haven’t stayed with Beatrice for over 35 years. I am officially married to one wife (swings his left hand in the same direction) here, Maria Kiwanuka.”

He further says that actually, upon his mother’s death recently, he advised Beatrice to use his fallen mother’s house in Kamwokya and let out hers in Kololo, for her upkeep. “I had someone who wanted to give her USD5, 000 per month and my advice was simple. ‘Now that you’re aging, you need not to hustle,’ but the only answer from her was; ‘who sleeps in Kamwokya.” He totally dismisses the eviction allegation.

Going back to Jordan, the visibly irritated Mohan shakes his head in disbelief. “Actually, the whole thing is about Jordan himself. He represents nobody in the tricks of grabbing my property. I know and surely trust that his siblings will one day realize the truth that he’s doing everything for personal and selfish gains…” he turns to the newest comer and personal lawyer, Faisal Mukasa with directives; “please share my letter to Jordan with Mr. Ndawula. He will then understand me better on this.”

“But why push Jordan so hard to the extent of pouring hips of sand at his work premises’ entrance?” Sliding back in his seat, he shakes his head again, intensely disgusted. “What would you do? First, he has occupied that property for four years without my permission. I had personally asked him as a father, out of those premises on several occasions but with little success until when I handed the matter to my lawyers. Before that, he was forcefully occupying another property on Plot 11 Ngabo road [in Kololo]. He only left when I sold it off.”

“When was the climax that made you fire him as Company Secretary to Visa Investments, coupled with the desire to throw him out of your properties”? He pulls up, rests his elbows onto his knees as he leans forward with both hands free to swing in motion. “Jordan has occupied the property where his ‘seven trees’ is for ten years without remitting any monies. I asked him to leave some years ago but he stubbornly refused until recently when he humiliated me.” He closes his eyes, lightly shaking his head in disbelief-like thought of what had happened.

I turn to the nameless visitor who narrates thus; “Recently, the retired Chief Justice Wako Wambuzi had a function and had several months back, booked the venue. Chairman had notified Jordan on time and instructed him not to book in any event on that day. To his surprise, in the middle of Justice Wambuzi’s speech, loud music abruptly disrupted him. Jordan had booked in a wedding on the same day.”

“I have gone through a lot with Jordan. He has so far put caveats on over 50 of my properties. It all started when I asked him to leave the two assets which have not yielded any income for the last 10 years. That’s when he declared me lunatic, mad and vegetable. I am not in a vegetative state as you can see. I can still respond to my senses and command my feelings. He has dragged me to court over several allegations. He at one time dared me to sell off my factory and clear debts! How then can he purport to be fighting to save the same?”

Though she kept steadily firm in her seat, attentively listening like a stranger to her husband’s narrations, Maria Nabasirye Kiwana Kiwanuka remains a power to reckon on in her family. Even when he was telling his own story, Mohan would occasionally steal a glance at her, in a gesture to confirm he was still on the right truck of what exactly was the question… and at all times, she would firmly nod in strong approval of his command of the story.

“You’ve been quiet all this time yet out there, it’s you commanding your husband to do all what he does against your step children”? She wears her signature cheerful smile, composes self in a true gesture of an African woman speaking after her husband. “It also surprises me that the son I have brought up with all requisites of a good child can smear me before the public. The good thing is you have listened to the Chairman for close to an hour and he has personally responded to you without a single guidance from me. Another thing is he has a string of lawyers and legal advisors. I am not one of them.”

“Well, Mr. Kiwanuka, is it true you have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and how, if yes, has it affected you?” he pauses, clears his voice but before he speaks, Maria sets in; “Actually that question is…” (Mohan interjects), “Of course, sure, it is a sensitive question. However, any sane person above 45 years make regular medical tests. The results, whether positive or negative, doesn’t mean one is a vegetable already.”

“Mr. Chairman, we also have it that you’re eventually disowning your children?” In almost a dying tone of a whisper to himself, he answers. “Of course, sure. That one… Jordan Ssebuliba is not my biological son. Beatrice was my girlfriend but along the way, she fell in love with her boss of the time and Jordan is the product of that affair. Her other children are mine.”

Eagle CEO Richard Wanambwa chats with his host Mohan (R)

Asked whether Jordan was aware and when he made it known to him, Mohan simply replies thus; “When he was of age. He knows it. It’s unfortunate he is treating me like this but he knows it. He is not alone, I have other kids I have brought up like my own. It is sad…,” He leans back, in justifiably a retiring posture, signaling the end of the interview.

Maria now checks her wrist watch and reminds the husband of a certain meeting. “Gentlemen, I think I will see you off. I have another meeting at the factory. Mr. Mukasa should provide you with all necessary documents save for those that might affect the legal proceedings in court.”

The couple walked us into the parking lot but before they jump into respective rides for their next destination, Maria stops, looks at me for a second, smiles and announces; “Mr. Investigator, that’s the lot of dirt in my closet. True description of my dirty linen indeed. As you have seen, I’m actually not offended…” to be continued…

Below is Mohan’s verbatim letter to Jordan

17th June 2019

Mr. Jordan Sebuliba Kiwanuka

Kololo – Kampala

My Son

DEMAND FOR VACANT POSSESSION FRV FOLIO 20 PLOT 21-29 GOLF COURSE ROAD, KOLOLO AND PLOT 10 AKII BUA AVENUE NAKASERO.

I have been forced to pen this missive to you to make you understand my reasons behind the position I have taken with regard to my above properties among others.

You should know me well enough by now to understand that under any other circumstances, I would not have to explain my reasons to you or anybody else for that matter.

The reasons I am doing this is because you decided to blow my decision to take back my properties out of proportion and to portray me amongst your siblings and other relatives as being inconsiderate and unreasonable, which is not true.

You will recall that you moved into the above properties without my knowledge and or permission, which no other sibling of yours has ever done. You occupied those properties for the last ten (10) years on commercial basis generating money therefrom without any accountability and without paying rent.

You knew from the beginning that I acquired those properties as commercial investments and not charity. On several occasions, I have verbally asked you in a parental manner to make arrangements to return the properties back to me for proper management but you turned a deaf hear.

It is therefore not true that the notice from my lawyers came unexpectedly or was a surprise. You knew I needed you out of these properties many years back.

I was taken aback recently when you dared to suggest to my face that I should close up and sell my factory! Jordan, I was greatly disappointed and hurt. You cannot fathom where I have come from to achieve whatever I have achieved and for you, you have the audacity to dare to suggest that I should sell my factory because in your view, I can no longer manage to run it, was an insult to say the least.

In light of your ill-advised actions, I have come to learn how you have been trying to influence my staff behind my back to stop them from working on Saturdays and how you deducted payments from the security staff without you declaring it. This is a direct interference with my workers and intermeddling in my work which I cannot continue to tolerate.

After your ill-fated advice or directive for the sale of my factory, you instigated people who claimed to be KCCA enforcements people to come to the factory on or about the 21st May 2019 and threatened to close the factory for unpaid dues. Fortunately I had previously given a payment schedule to KCCA which they had accepted but their response was received at your office and [you] never forwarded to me.

There are a number of other unpleasant incidents I could mention but I hope the above gives you a sense of my feelings and the reasons behind my decision.

I gave you the best education and upbringing just like all your siblings. In return, I have not seen any particular moment where you have shown care for me, your father but only insatiable desire to grab whatever you can lay your hands on.

Lastly, I want you and your siblings to know that I made my investments on my own business instincts which most people could not appreciate at the time but turned out as well as I had anticipated. I now need those properties and it will be decent of you to hand them back to me without the embarrassment of resorting to auctioneers or any other forceful methods for that matter. By copy of this letter, my lawyers are hereby instructed to follow through my instructions to the letter.

Your Dad [signature] … Cc M/s Buwule & Mayiga Advocates.

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