Summary Of The Court Fight Between Ham Enterprises And DTB To Eventual Judgement

Posted by: Eninu William in Uganda news October 10, 2020

In the events of the court case between Ham Enterprises and Diamond Trust Bank, here is a quick summary of how everything started, to the last moment of judgement.

1. Ham borrows U$50M and UGX 100B.

2. DTB-Uganda books the facilities in DTB-Kenya books, like many Ugandan banks do because of their limited capital abilities.

3. Ham goes ahead and signs an agreement reading DTB-Kenya in 2011.

4. Ham starts paying well his loan (obviously with the system deducting monthly installments as per the offer letters).

5. Ham goes to Law Development Center, studies law. Since he was in the business of borrowing, he concentrates on laws relating to loans.

6. He realizes a loophole in the agreements reading DTB-Kenya yet he applied for a loan from DTB-Uganda.

7. He therefore withdraws all his cash in DTB-Uganda and defaults installments as they fall due.

8. DTB Uganda puts Ham’s securities on market to recover the loans

9. Ham runs to court (the main reason he’s referred to as the applicant or plaintiff) claiming the bank deducted his money from his account without his consent. This is the installments that the bank had recovered at first before the loan went bad, i.e US$23M and UGX34B.

10. After years of engaging in legal brawls, the judge says that;

DTB-Kenya has no license from BOU to do financial lending business in the country. Neither does it pay taxes in Uganda, so the loans extended to Ham by DTB Kenya are settled at law level. Therefore, Ham has no obligation to pay them.
DTB Uganda did not register DTB Kenya as the agent neither did DTB Kenya register its Ugandan counterpart as it agent as per Kenyan banking laws.
The judge says that DTB in both countries should repay Ham US$23M and UGX34B with interest rate of 8%.
Bank of Uganda and Uganda Banker’s Association get worried accordingly as the business of banks booking loans in foreign banks is the order of the day in the sector. Many borrowers may recheck their agreements and run to courts.
Uganda Revenue Authority is quiet, however, it knows there’s tax avoidance as Foreign Banks don’t pay taxes in Uganda. (They know it will bite soon.)

In such a case, who do you think is at fault?
DTB-Kenya?
Ham Enterprises?
The Judge?
Bank of Uganda?
Uganda Banker’s Association?

Is this a land mark ruling or plain sight fraud?

Finally, is Hamis Kigundu(Ham Enterprises proprietor) a thief or smart or a smart thief!

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