{UAH} Gen Salim Saleh survived Grilling before Chief Magistrate now Justice Bamugemereire
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- Category: Politics News
- Published on 25 November 2013
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How Gen Salim Saleh survived Grilling before Chief Magistrate now Justice Bamugemereire in the Mafioso Westmont/ UCB Purchase Deal
By Stephen K Muwambi
This country has witnessed privatization scandals under President Yoweri Museveni’s reign but none of them arguably shook the country than the one which involved the former Uganda Commercial Bank now Stanbic bank.
So prickly the scandal was it ended up claiming the Finance and Privatization ministers respectively, Mathew Rukikaire Manzi Tumubweine as well as seeing Saleh resign.
It’s because of the UCB sale that the then high flying Greenland Empire (GE) sunk along with its MD and former Central Bank governor Dr Sulaiman Kiggundu (RIP).
GE had under its wings the then leading coffee exporting company, FIBA, Greenland bank, Greenland Forex Bureau,  First Insurance Company and Kampala International University among others.
Background
As it was the norm at the time, government decided to privatize what was otherwise fondly referred to as the people’s bank (UCB). Scouting for potential buyers took off in earnest.
Inside sources have it that the crafty brokers in government saw the chance to cut deals and make hefty money over the sale and so, joined the frantic search.
After scratching their heads, the brokers in government concluded that they could only make reasonable money if they presented a fake company and end up buying the bank themselves along with land titles worth trillions of shillings as well as the branches that were littered all over the country.
This is when our brainy brokers coined the name Westmont and presented it as a Malaysian company ready to buy off UCB. Government accepted Westmont’s offer. Later tongues started wagging indicating that Westmont was actually a fertile imagination of government brokers out to buy UCB.
Plot falls apart
While he gave evidence in court, departed Dr Kiggundu told judge of the moment Justice Bamugemereire how government brokers failed to raise the money to pay for UCB. The panicky brokers then run to Kiggundu.
Literally on bended knees, Dr Kiggundu added the brokers begged him to save them from the looming embarrassment and buy UCB as the deadline was fast approaching, yet they had no cash required to seal the deal.
The former BOU governor told of how he quickly mobilized the dime required from within and out of the country and bought off the bank but under the cover of Westmont as the brokers had begged him.
Rumour mill goes into gear
The loose-mouthed Ugandans would later shoot off their mouths, claiming Westmont was a fertile imagination of the brokers in government. The noise attracted the ears of Parliament which swung into action and later found what had been regarded as mere rumours true.
Smelling a bad report from parliament determined to have heads roll over the affair; Gen Saleh came out and told the world that actually Westmont did not exist. He revealed it was Greenland Bank which had bought UCB under the cover of Westmont. He followed up the confession with the offer to resign from the army for engaging in business that the army code outlawed.
By the time the report came out, Rukikaire and Manzi, the ministers who were at the center of the deal had resigned to save face.
Besides losing all the money he had invested in the purchase of UCB after government took back the facility, poor Kiggundu ended up in court.
As would be expected, Kiggundu spilled rotten beans when he appeared before then Buganda Road Chief Magistrate now Justice Catherine Bamugemereire. Kiggundu wondered why he was prosecuted alone yet he was lured into the deal by Gen Saleh.
Having implicated Saleh, Kiggundu applied to court to let the General appear as his witness for Bamugemereire to get the full story. Court granted the application.
Saleh appears, DPP withdraws case
When Saleh finally appeared in the fully packed Buganda Road Court, the matter took long to proceed. The General would sit in the courtroom in a pensive mood.
When the court finally convened, the DPP representative rose up, only to report that his boss had decided to discontinue proceedings against Dr Kiggundu just like that. Though the DPP has the powers under the Constitution to do what he did, the loud mouthed claimed on this occasion he did so to save some people.
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