President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said the sale of Simbamanyo House by Equity Bank to tycoon Dr Sudhir Ruparelia was legal since its owner Peter Kamya defaulted on the payment of the loan and failed to deposit 30% as ordered by Court.
Museveni made the conclusion in a letter dated 25th October 2021 in which he responded to a complaint by city architecture Kamya who had run to him to stop a few months ago claiming his building had been sold illegally.
After receiving Kamya’s complaint, Museveni on September 3, directed the Central Bank Governor Emmanuel Mutebile to investigate the sale of the building and report back in a week’s time.
“They state that whereas Bank of Uganda directed that there should be no foreclosure of mortgaged properties by banks during the Covid-19 pandemic, Equity Bank went ahead and sold their properties at very low prices. This is therefore to direct that you expeditiously investigate the matter and report back within one week,” Museveni said in a letter sent to Mutebile.
After receiving feedback, the President responded to Kamya on October 25.
“I directed the Attorney General and the Governor, Bank of Uganda to investigate the complaint and report back. 1 have since been advised that the sale was legal, since you had defaulted on payment of the loan and did not deposit 30% of the loan amount as was ordered by Court,” Museveni informed Mr Kamya.
He added the aggrieved party can pursue the matter through Court.
“They have further advised that you are at liberty to pursue other remedies in Court.”
Museveni’s conclusion clears air on the sale of the building.
His comments come against a backdrop of a Commercial Court ruling in which Mr Kamya is directed to pay legal costs to Equity Bank, Luwaluwa Investments and Dr Sudhir Ruparelia.
Equity bank was awarded UGX 600,000,000, Meera Investments was awarded UGX 400,000,000 and Luwaluwa Investments UGX 300,000,000.
Simbamanyo Estates Limited, owned by Peter Kamya had utilised its prime properties as guarantees against its loans from Equity bank Ltd in November 2017. Failure to fulfil their loan obligations, Equity Bank went on to recover the outstanding debt worth $10.8 million which is about Shs40 billion.
The new owner of the property Sudhir has since renamed the mega structure which houses Ministry of Gender- Gender and labour House.