By ROBERT MBARAGA
In Summary
- Case involving exiled Rwandan businessman Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro now at the First Instance Division of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ)
- Tycoon wants Government of Rwanda held responsible for acts of the Kigali City Abandoned Property Management Commission that took over management of his shopping mall in the heart of Kigali after he went into exile
Exiled Rwandan businessman Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro is not
backing down in his efforts to recover his properties seized by the
Rwandan government.
The First Instance Division of the East African Court of Justice
(EACJ) on Tuesday started procedures to hear afresh the case in which
the exiled Rwandan tycoon sued the government of Rwanda for “wrongfully
and illegally taking over his property.”
This follows a November 2014 decision of the appellate division
of EACJ that ordered the first instance to reconsider the case because
of what it described “irregularity of proceeding.”
According to Yufnalis Okubo, the registrar of the court, the
hearing was a “Scheduling Conference”, meant to set dates for future
healings.
“Some people who claim to be shareholders in UTC have filed to
join the case and all this will be reviewed in this hearing,” he
revealed without naming the parties.
Rujugiro through UTC, a company he is a majority shareholder
took the matter to the Arusha-based court seeking to hold the Government
of Rwanda responsible for acts of the Kigali City Abandoned Property
Management Commission that took over management of his shopping mall in
the heart of Kigali after he went into exile.
Apart from this shopping mall valued at $20 million, the
businessman also wants to reverse the seizure of his other properties
including a residential mansion located in Gikondo, a Kicukiro district
and a tea estate.
Mr Rujugiro however lost the case in November 2014, when the
court ruled that he had not demonstrated a violation of the EAC Treaty,
attributable to the Government of Rwanda but immediately appealed.
Without considering the arguments of the parties and their councils, the appeal court ordered that the case be heard de novo by the first instance court after establishing that the “Trial Court proceeded without evidence.”
Team of lawyers
“The irregularity of proceeding to trial and judging the case
without evidence, in a situation where factual evidence was clearly
called for, and recognised as imperative, by both the Court and Counsel
appearing, naturally occasioned a most grave injustice to both parties”
the appellate division judgement reads.
According to experts this means a completely new trial.
“The court will have to re-examine the merits of the case
without allusion to the legal conclusions or assumptions made by the
previous court” explained Me Aloys Mutabingwa, a lawyer in Kigali and
former deputy secretary General of EAC.
The case will be heard over again by the same panel of judges
with the only change being the principal judge. The new chief judge is
Justice Monica Mugenyi, who takes over from Justice Jean Bosco Butasi.
Johnston Busingye, the Rwandan minister of Justice and attorney
general said that a team of lawyers is representing the government of
Rwanda in the hearing.
Currently, a number of properties owned by exiled businessman
are managed by the government through abandoned property commissions at
the district level mandated by a law.
Critics accuse the government of using the law to target the
regime’s opponents. Mr Rujugiro has in the past been accused of the
working with dissidents to distabilise the country.
Considered on the of the richest men on the continent by Forbes Magazine,
with a net worth of $280 million, Mr Rujugiro, who until 2010 was an
economic advisor to President Paul Kagame, fell out with the government
and relocated to South Africa.
Mr Busingye, a Rwandan minister who is also the Attorney Genera,
defended the government decision to attach the properties of the exile
tycoon, telling The EastAfrican that the decision was ensure smooth and safe management of the properties.
Apart from real estate properties, in 2014, the government took
over tycoon's shares in Nshili Kivu Tea Factory, which were taken over
by Nyaruguru District authorities on June 25 after the Commission for
Abandoned Properties resolved it was “poorly managed.”
Mr Busingye said that the commissions of abandoned properties
did not repossess but are managing Mr Rujugiro’s behalf, a claim which
the tycoon dismisses, terming it “illegal seizure”.
Mr Rujugiro has businesses in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, South Africa, Angola,
Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates, where he is currently based.
Withholding proceeds
The government argued that the monies generated from the
properties or the properties themselves would be used in subversive
activities.
In July 2014, the state froze 12 accounts in Access Bank belonging to Mr Rujugiro and his wife Nathalie Mukagatete.
In June this year, Mr Rujugiro filed a multimillion shilling
suit against Kenyan investment bank Dyer & Blair, accusing the
broker of selling his Safaricom shares and failing to speedily pass on
the sale proceeds to him.
Mr Rujugiro wants Dyer & Blair ordered to pay him damages
for withholding proceeds of the share sale for 135 days, and for paying
him after fluctuations of the US dollar rate negatively affected his
returns.
The Rwandan tycoon bought his 8.8 million Safaricom shares in
2008 for $1 million through Dyer & Blair, but ordered the lender to
sell the stocks in 2013.
Dyer & Blair fetched Ksh85.7 million, but withheld the sum
for 135 days, before converting it to $989,631. Mr Rujugiro and later
said the Kenyan shilling strengthened against the dollar during the
withholding period, a move that cost him substantial loss.
The businessman is claiming $577,000 in special damages, and has
also asked the court to award him an unspecified amount in general
damages.
Mr Rujugiro says he lost a chance to re-invest the proceeds of
the share sale in the international stock market because of Dyer &
Blair’s move to hold his funds.
He accused Dyer & Blair of acting under coercion from the government of Rwanda.
The case is still ongoing.
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