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Exiled Rwandan tycoon continues battle for seized properties

Wednesday September 07 2016
Exiled

The mansion belonging to Rwandan tycoon Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa, who is exiled in South Africa, which has been taken over by the government. The businessman has moved to court to stop the seizure of his other properties, including a tea estate. PHOTO | DANIEL SABITI

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.”

READ: Rwandan tycoon takes govt to EACJ

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.

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READ: Rwandan tobacco tycoon sues Dyer & Blair in share sale row

ALSO READ: UTC saga: RRA now accuses exiled tycoon of tax default

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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