By Mable Nakibuuka
City businessman Moses Kalungi Kirumira, who is brother of tycoon Godfrey Kirumira, spent the weekend in coolers after he was arrested over allegations of theft, breaking into a shop, threatening violence, among others.
Kalungi was arrested by police in Kibuli after his tenants led by Andrew Lawoko accused of allegedly breaking into their shop on his building Kalungi Plaza, from where stole computers, furniture, air conditioners and other properties which were owned by their defunct betting company.
However, Kalungi denied the allegations and asserted that his accusers are fraudsters who defaulted rent for his shop which is USD48,000 about Shs176m and Utility bills worth over Shs14.5M, yet instead of clearing their arrears they are instead playing ping-pong with the police.
Genesis Of Matter
According to our sources, the saga started in 2016 when Kalungi rented out a shop on his building to Marc Plaxton Harrison, Patrick Smuts and Andrew Lawoko, who used to operate a sports betting company called Vas Garage Bet Limited.
In 2018, Marc Plaxton Harrison, Patrick Smuts and Lawoko failed to pay the rent, abandoned their properties in the shop and disappeared.
In 2019 Kalungi, filed a civil case at Mengo Chief Magistrates Courts vide Miscellaneous Cause No. 164 of 2019 to recover his rent and vacant possession of his property and secured a Court Order/ Special Certificate to Levy Distress for Rent.
He also hired court bailiffs who, having followed the due course of the law, seized the properties of the defaulting tenants, after getting court orders cleared by the police, who supervised and witnessed access to the premises and entering the shop to retrieve the properties of defaulting tenants.
However, on learning about the matter, the tenants reported a case at Kibuli based Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters and filed a complaint for theft of their properties which Mengo court had ordered to be confiscated by the court bailiffs.
When Kalungi was summoned by police to Kibuli, he reported and gave the detectives the court order, plus a letter from the Commandant Kampala Metropolitan Police authorizing the bailiffs to enter the shop and confiscate of the property of the tenants.
However, he was instead arrested and charged along his sons for theft of the said property and shop breaking, even after giving the police detectives at Kibuli the court orders and documents from police officers who supervised the bailiffs when they entered the shop to remove the defaulting tenants’ properties.
But many of Kalungi’s family members and business associates are wondering why the police decided to play double standards yet he submitted all the court orders and other correspondences about the matter with police officers, which has left them suspecting there could be corruption involved. We have established that Kalungi alleges that the investigating officer is a brother of the complainant Lawoko, who has since ordered the arrest of Kalungi’s sons.
However, efforts to reach out to either Lawoko or the police for a comment about this matter are still ongoing since they couldn’t be reached through their phone contacts over the weekend.
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