How Overzealous Robert Kirunda Prompted DPP Abodo’s  To Intervention As Vantage, Bitature Case Degenerated Into Chaos

Lady Justice Jane Frances Abodo, Uganda’s Director of Public Prosecutions(DPP), took over the case of South Africa’s Mezzanine Vantage and Ugandan businessman, Patrick Bitature, fearing that Counsel, Robert Kirunda’s overzealousness was likely going to make the case to lose direction, this investigative website can tell.

From what we have gathered from highly credible sources, Vantage is poised to lose in the end since the DPP is potentially going to use the powers granted to her by the Constitution of Uganda to stop Kirunda’s other attempt at the private prosecution of Bitature and his wife because the same was poised to cause confusion and hamper the ongoing processes leading into an amicable settlement of these long-standing matters.

Abodo took the decision after a relatively new Lady Justice, Jane Kania prodded on by Kirunda, resurrected the private prosecution of Bitature and his wife, Carol which process had earlier on been stopped to facilitate an appeal process by Vantage itself after Justice Musa Ssekaana ruled that the impugned Ushs244Bn debt Bitature owes the South African moneylenders was void since it was contracted between the two parties in absence of Bank of Uganda’s approval.

Robert Kirunda

A Comedy of Coincidences

The DPP further took the decision since the two parties were involved in negotiations leading to the settlement of the case. The negotiations are only shy of materialization since the government of Uganda is still processing payment due to  Bitature after the former undertook to buy out the latter’s  Electro Maxx Thermal Generation Company.

But because the government payment is about to be finally handed to Bitature, it’s feared that is what motivated Kirunda to work overdrive by instigating a second attempt at the private prosecution of Bitature and Carol.

 That was done by Kirunda, we understand, with the view of driving the couple into a panic mode. And also with the view of impressing Kirunda’s South African clients into believing that he is actually working very hard at realizing their money from Bitature. 

Yet the matter itself Kirunda is purportedly trying to push hard on behalf of his clients, merely pends settlement by Bitature using the money about to come from the government of Uganda.

Cunning Strategy and the Questionable Ethics

Consequently, it’s believed, that Kirunda’s wider plot was to prepare the ground well in advance for justification of a handsome sum of legal fees from his clients following the government’s payment of Bitature on the ground that he had worked hard to prevail over Bitature to finally pay up.

While he was at it, Kirunda never notified Bitature and Carol about what he was up to. This in turn raises the belief that the lawyer went behind the couple he was targeting with private prosecution with the view to deny them the right to be heard prior to Justice Kania’s issuance of the grave order which she eventually issued against the respondents in their absentia.

Failure by Kirunda to notify the opposite parties, any average lawyer would be able to tell, made the eventual order issued by the relatively new Lady Justice Kania not only to be impugned by virtue of being contrary to the cardinal rule of natural justice but also fall short of the dictates of the country’s Constitution itself.

DPP Abodo

Debt Disputes, Covid Complications, and Judicial Rulings

For the record, Bitature fell out with the South African financers and took them to court after the moneylenders moved to carry out an auction of his entire business empire comprising real estate, hotels, Telecom, and so on.

Bitature asserted the over Ush200Bn debt Vantage sought to collect by auctioning his business enterprises was inflated by inflated interest and inflated penalties, rendering the interest, the penalties, and the debt itself not only unconscionable but also exploitative and thus illegal.

He argued in the alternative about how the breakout of Covid 19 which ended up ravaging the world for two years, coupled with the delay in the drilling of oil, had hampered his earlier anticipated business prospects, hampering his capacity to pay back what he had borrowed.

Vantage insisted on being paid back their money the way they computed it and served duly to Bitature, prompting Bitature to ask Justice Musa Sekaana to strike out Vantage’s debt as being void which the judge did.

Legal Odyssey

Although Vantage quickly appealed through Counsel, Robert Kirunda, the lawyer would before the resolution of his clients’ appeal, rush to advertise for the auction of Bitature’s properties, inviting interest buyers to put in their bids.

After failing in his above-mentioned controversial endeavors, Kirunda then applied to Justice Stephen Mubiru who cleared Bitature’s and his wife, Carol’s private prosecution at the  Buganda Road court for purportedly changing the ownership of properties he had staked to Vantage, effectively canceling out Justice Sekaana’s earlier relief towards Bitature.

Bitature still managed to secure a stay of the process that had earlier been proclaimed by Justice Mubiru.

As that went on, Bitature and his estranged foreign financers were at the same time involved in an arbitration process away in London which ended up with an order for Bitature to pay the moneylenders.

Bitature

Bitature has since rejected the arbitration award issued in favor of Vantage in London worth tens of billions of shillings by filing an application to stop its implementation, arguing Vantage could not go ahead and collect the money without registration of the order itself in Uganda courts.

In the final analysis, now that the private prosecution case launched against Bitature and his wife by Kirunda is in the hands of the DPP, Vantage is poised to lose since the DPP is most likely going to close the file to allow for the civil processes to continue without undue interference from Kirunda and his clients.

Should that likely occur, Kirunda’s overzealousness would be the one to blame for having led his clients blindly on a wild goose chase or call it a fishing expedition if you want.

We rest our case.