KAMPALA: Troubled city businessman Hamis Kiggundu of Ham Enterprises is in a dilemma as he faces many challenges in a Shs 120 billion case where he wants to dodge paying back the billions of shillings he willingly borrowed from two branches of Diamond Trust Bank (DTB).
Kiggundu owns a number of prime properties in the city including Ham Shopping Mall, along the Nakivubo Channel and Ham Towers just opposite Makerere University Main Gate, among others. But some properties are likely to be taken away from him should he fail to pay the debts he acquired from the bank.
Ham’s bad witnesses exposed further
Kiggundu’s bad approach to resolving the loan dispute has pushed him to recruit witnesses that are not credible before court and they will be exposed when hearing of the case starts because they possess criminal records, with some out on police bond. These are the kind of witnesses that the businessman thinks can help him beat DTB Uganda and DTB Kenya, which where honest enough when giving him loans to do his development projects.
His witnesses with questionable characters are; Asiimwe Shirley, the former Credit Administration Manager and Namugga Anati Kayita,the former Manager Credit Administration. They were both dismissed from the bank on charges of embezzlement and causing financial loss of Shs 1.9 billion. The duo was charged before the Ant-Corruption Court and are currently out on bail. The duo diverted Shs1.9 billion from the Credit Department of the Bank.
Kiggundu’s other bad witness, Clayton Lakony Omona, the former head of Security, Fraud Prevention and Forensic Investigations, is a police deserter who is being hunted by security operatives. Omona resigned after messing up Stanbic Bank as he asked for bribes from the bank’s customers as he was investigating them. The police case file against Omona is registered as GEF 675/19, accused of forgery and impersonation. Sources say he compromises those following his case so that he remains at large.
*Recap*
Kiggundu and his companies without any want to cheat Shs34 billion and US$23 million from DTB which he alleges was irregularly removed from his accounts. But the banks defend themselves saying Kiggundu and his two companies hold accounts with them and that the same on various dates took various credit facilities. The banks list the credit facilities taken by Ham Enterprises US$6,663,453, Shs1.5 billion, Shs1billionn, US$4 million and US$500,000.
This matter arose in January when Kiggundu and his companies, Ham Enterprises and Kiggs International (U) Ltd, sued Diamond Trust Bank Uganda and Diamond Trust Bank (Kenya) for alleged breach of contract in the multibillion loan dispute. He claims between February 2011 and September 2016, his two companies sought various loans from the banks for construction, development and completion of commercial properties.
Retired banker speaks out against Kiggundu
A retired banker has confessed that Hamis bribed some bank officials of a bank to wrongly report Credit history to cheat another bank. “Check with Police case history. You will get more and more!” he says.
Kiggundu’s bank loans bigger than value of his properties.
Further, one employee who lost his job from a bank challenged Hamis to show the original titles of his properties. All, he said, are with Private money lenders and banks, which he said does not make him a tycoon, but rather a just a businessman who depends on other people’s money to survive. Analysis of data shows that Kiggundu’s bank borrowing is more than US$60 million while his wealth is not more than more than US$ 30 million.