{UAH} MONEY: Moses, Olive Kigongo ‘have never been husband and wife

Moses, Olive Kigongo 'have never been husband and wife'

News

WEDNESDAY, 28 JANUARY 2015 02:26

WRITTEN BY DERRICK KIYONGA

36 COMMENTS

Olive Kigongo and Moses Kigongo have never been

Although Moses and Olive Kigongo have been publicly known as husband and wife for a decade and a half, it has emerged that they were "not married".

Moses Kigongo is the vice chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement, while businesswoman Olive is the media-savvy president of the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. And it has taken a business power struggle between the two to bring their domestic puzzle in the public eye.

The 'couple' own Mosa Court Apartments, one of the most expensive lodging facilities in the city. Moses owns 85 per cent of the company, while Olive has a 15 per cent stake. However, in a petition filed at the High court on January 15, Olive asked the court to wind up Mosa Court, citing irreconcilable differences with her "husband" and fellow shareholder.

Through Kwesigabo, Bamwine and Walubiri Company advocates, Olive states that the company is owned by her and Moses and that they are husband and wife. 
Moses firmly disagrees about the wife bit. In court papers drawn by Muwema, Company Advocates and Solicitors, Moses says all he has in common with Olive is that they are both directors of Mosa Court.

"The petitioner [Olive] and I are not husband and wife," Moses says in his affidavit. "However, the petitioner and I are two directors and subscribers to the memorandum and articles of association of the respondent company [Mosa Court Apartments]."

Speaking to The Observer yesterday, Davis Wesley Tusingwire, one of Moses's lawyers, reiterated that despite staying together since 1997, Moses and Olive are not legally married.

"You can live together for many years but that doesn't mean that your are married. There was never a customary, civil or religious marriage," Tusingwire said.

Edged out

Tusingwire rejected Olive's claim that she is married to Moses, asking why she never filed the case as Zaitun Kigongo, the names she adopted after getting into a relationship with Moses. In her petition, Olive says that sometime in 2011; Moses took drastic and unexplained steps and removed her from the board.

"He [Moses] took away from her all cheque books of account and records of the company and employed staff who exclusively report to him. The petitioner [Olive] no longer has access to the records and bank accounts of the company and she's totally excluded from all affairs of the company including access to its properties like vehicles and telephones," the petition partly reads.

Moses, in response, says that in 2011, he discovered that Olive was mismanaging the financial affairs of the company, leading to unexplained losses amounting to Shs 5.6bn.

"The respondent [Moses] called several meetings to address the financial mismanagement but the petitioner obstinately refused to attend any such meetings called and she has since abandoned her office to date, thereby excluding herself from the managing of the company," he says.

As a result of the mismanagement, Moses says, he became more active in the running of the business, hence appointing staff to assist him. Moses denies Olive's claim that he is running the company in an oppressive manner. To the contrary, he says, it's Olive who is running down the business with excessive and lavish spending.

According to Moses, Olive's petition is a domestic misunderstanding disguised as a company matter, which is being brought maliciously with the intention of tarnishing his "good" name.

"That the petitioner [Olive] has not made out a case for winding up of the respondent company and therefore the petitioner is not entitled to any reliefs sought," he asserts.

Olive claims that from 1997 when the company was registered, she has been involved in its day-to- day management. She claims she's turned around the company to the extent that it was able to repay a loan worth $800,000 they had got from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a claim Moses roundly denies.

dkiyonga@gmail.com 

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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