The Commission of Abandoned Properties in Nyarugenge District has defended the repossession of Union Trade Centre (UTC), saying it was procedural.

READ: Govt takes over mall and freezes Rujugiro accounts

Commission’s head Pierre Kalisa said the government has taken over shares of Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro and ageing tycoon, who is the majority shareholder, but the stakes of other shareholders have not been tampered with.

“It is not true that we have attached the property. What we have done is basically to look after the property of an individual who has not been living in the country, especially when we know that it is not properly managed.”

“We took over the shares of the missing individual and channel whatever incomes that are generated from that asset to an account at the National Bank of Rwanda. If that person has loans to service with banks, BNR pays it automatically as well as other expense, which includes renovation costs,” said Mr Kalisa.

He said the money will remain in BNR until the owner claims it.

“It is not UTC alone. We also have under our management several other commercial buildings in Nyarugenge area, which have been abandoned by their owners, including genocide suspects or even people who left before 1994 and we still manage them.”

“Some do return to claim them, and they are handed back. These are powers we are given by the law. There is nothing illegal about the move to intervene in the management of UTC if Mr Rujugiro is not around,” Mr Kalisa told Rwanda Today.

The commission’s mandate

The law, which gives the commission powers to repossess abandoned properties was enacted in 2004, but Mr Rujugiro says his properties are properly managed.

When the news broke that the government was planning to attach his properties, the ageing tycoon, who is based in South Africa noted that the government was planning to seize his mall. 

“These actions by the Rwanda government are incomprehensible to me. UTC is an incorporated entity in Rwanda and a good corporate citizen since 2006. It pays tax and has not broken any law,” Mr Rujugiro told the Daily Monitor in an earlier interview in Johannesburg. 

Valued at $20 million, Union Trade Centre is home to businesses run by over 80 companies, which employ over 400 people.

Mr Rujugiro said attaching his properties and freezing 12 bank accounts he runs with his wife Nathalie Mukagatete in Access Bank has some political motives because he faces no legal charges in Rwanda.

Prosecutor general Martin on August 6 directed managing director of Access Bank Rwanda to freeze the accounts held by Mr Rujugiro and his wife pending “criminal investigation.”

Mr Rujugiro, who prior to his self-imposed exile was President Paul Kagame’s advisor on economic affairs, regretted the government’s move.

Prosecution has not detailed investigations, which are being carried out, but last week the prosecution spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda said Mr Rujugiro’s case “was not special because he is not the first one to be investigated.”

However, attaching Mr Rujugiro’s property and freeze his bank accounts is seen as a fallout between the tycoon and the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front, which he was once an eminent member.

Signs of sour relationship between the businessman, who bankrolled the RPF liberation struggle and current government came to the fore in April 15, 2011, when Rwanda National Police announced that it had intercepted eight cars belonging to Mr Rujugiro, which were enroute to Eastern DR Congo.

Links with rebels

He has also been linked to dissident former Army Chief of Staff Lt Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa and former spy chief Patrick Karegeya who Kigali says are planning to destabilise Rwanda.

According to Dr David Himbara, Mr Rujugiro’s adviser, the plan to repossess the building in the centre of Kigali has been finalised.

There was a meeting on Thursday between the commission and the management of UTC, but details of the meeting were scanty.