SEJUSA SCARE: How Museveni Acted On Rumors, Froze, Seized Big Dollars

SEJUSA SCARE: How Museveni Acted On Rumors, Froze, Seized Big Dollars

President Yoweri Museveni, fooled by rumors, ordered the freezing and seizure of large amounts of United States dollars he mistakenly thought had been wired to Gen David Sejusa, rudely cutting short the windfall beneficiary’s joy, the Bulletin Media can exclusively divulge. Museveni ordered the funds frozen under the false impression they were for use by Sejusa and other opposition groups to cause political chaos following his election victory, the Bulletin media can further authoritatively disclose.

The Bulletin Media understands that a Chinese road construction company had wired the funds in issue to one of the United States dollar accounts held in one of the leading Kenyan banks operating in Uganda.
Totaling in all three hundred and fifty thousand United States dollars, the funds were wired to an account in the foregoing Kenyan bank’s branch at Oasis Mall next to Garden City in Kampala Capital City. The funds were in respect of payment for a local company whose location of operation was given as Nasser Road. The local company had apparently brokered a road construction deal for the Chinese firm, attracting the said commission. 

Political Paranoia and Financial Crackdown

Panicking out of unwarranted fear created by a fake piece of intelligence briefing, the Ugandan veteran leader quickly instructed the Financial Intelligence Authority [FIA] led by Sydney Asubo to raid the bank where the funds had been wired and completely freeze the account holding it. Basing on the president’s orders, FIA quickly raided the Kenyan bank’s branch located at Oasis Mall, freezing the account, and effectively seizing the funds.  Freezing and seizure of the money transpired five months following the February 18, 2016, general election won by President Yoweri Museveni, highlighting the huge pressure the president must have felt during and after the election in which his former Prime Minister, ruling NRM party Secretary General and also his principal political strategist, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi had participated into as a ruling party renegade presidential candidate.

It should be recalled that prior to seizing that money, President Museveni had seized tens of hundreds of motorcycles that had been imported into the country, suspecting that they were for use by Amama Mbabazi’s campaign agents to comb for votes in the countryside and throughout the country. FIA used the crime of money laundering to justify the freezing and seizure of the above-mentioned United States dollars, casting in doubt the legality of the operation itself.

Legal Battles and Financial Quagmires

But contrary to what his intelligence groups had told Museveni, the money in issue had been paid by a Chinese road construction firm to a Ugandan company, rendering it therefore erroneous to attribute the same to Sejusa let alone any other person for that matter. Upon failing to access his money, the owner instructed his lawyers to refer his bankers to the High Court’s Commercial Division, pleading for an order, and forcing the bank to open his account. He also sued FIA for wrongful and groundless freezing and seizure of his funds, grounding his business operations, occasioning him loss, embarrassment, and psychological torture. The bank told the presiding judge, now promoted to and serving at the Supreme Court, that it was merely an innocent party, simply acting on orders of FIA which had directed the freezing and seizure of the money. 

While the financial institution asserted that it wasn’t interested at all in holding on to the funds in issue, its Kenyan MD through his lawyers insisted on the appearance in court of the top directors of the Chinese firm to prove they were the ones who had paid the local company and for what, highlighting the huge pressure that the powers that be must have brought to bear on the financial institution. FIA answered the bank in agreement with the financial institution, insisting on the appearance of the top directors of the Chinese company before the account could be unfrozen and accessed by the owner.

Resolving the Rollercoaster of Frozen Funds and International Pressures

Two Chinese gentlemen were made to turn up in court by the owners of the frozen account, confirming to be the payers and senders of the funds and in respect of payment for the local firm, prompting FIA and the bank to concede to the unfreezing of the United States dollar bank account. Whereas the bank unfroze the bank account, prompting the local company MD to draw funds on two separate occasions, FIA struck again thereafter, freezing the United States dollars account again, seizing the dollars again, rendering accessing the funds by the owners next to impossible, casting to the light the high stakes involved in these matters.

Confused about what to do next, the director of the beneficiary local company dashed back to the judge, pleading for fresh orders to access the funds, demanding that FIA and the Kenyan MD be held responsible for contempt of the earlier court orders and be made therefore to pay five hundred million shillings each. Following two days of consultations between FIA and the Kenyan bank and between FIA and the president, a final consent court judgment was hammered out between the parties concerned. Before that, two directors of the Chinese company were made to categorically put it in writing that it was them who had paid the money to the local company and not for anything else but as payment for services offered to them by the payee, putting the intelligence- gone-wrong movie-like horror to a welcome close.

Family Ties and Financial Mysteries

Come to think of it, before I wind up. One of the lawyers working for the firm representing the local company paid by the Chinese firm, was a son to Gen David Sejusa, leading to speculation that the funds at stake were actually for his father, complicating the issue of unfreezing the funds much more. But as we have stated, every pending unresolved issue was finally resolved by the parties involved, leading to the final and absolute resolution of the main issue, throwing the owner of the dollars in joy.

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