In what seems to be a clear case of circumvention of the law, a very senior lawyer in town reveals how he hired Maj. Gen. Elly Kayanja to evict Squatters aka Bibanja holders.
Chris Bakiza, who previously presided the Uganda Police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations department, makes the rather scandalous revelation apparently because Kayanja allegedly ended up conning him.
Kayanja fought the war which ousted the regime of Dr. Apollo Milton Obote. He has served in the high echelons of the military including as head of Wembley which commendably eliminated armed robbers.
The military general now finds himself in a spot of bother after what was ordinarily supposed to be a secret deal is leaked by a lawsuit filed by Bakiza.
Members of the military aren’t under the law supposed to execute court orders. It becomes even much more scandalous if a military personnel goes on to execute a court order after being paid money.
The commander-in-chief has advocated for serious reprisal against people who evict bibanja holders. This means the President isn’t going to receive the news of Kayanja, if he gets to know of the scandal, being paid to evict people with a smile.
Being a very senior lawyer, and as such, an officer of court who is obligated to observe the law to the letter, Bakiza now finds himself in a really embarrassing situation for bringing a case whose cause of action is founded on, to be fair, what appears to be a bizarre transaction.
Also a practicing lawyer and also a former head of CID, Bakiza is ordinarily expected to know that court bailiffs are the ones who are supposed to execute court judgments except in rare cases where the police joins them to ensure law and order is observed at such functions.
Bakiza no longer wants bad PR such as the one likely to accrue from the instant case. The lawyer has suffered enough already following the humiliating fashion he was shoved out of the top police echelon following an equally shameful police probe headed by Lady Justice Julia Ssebutinde.
Well, Bakiza filed the case at the commercial division of the high court seeking a refund of a mind-boggling UGX 250 million from Kayanja.
According to the court documents, Bakiza is believed to have hired Kayanja three years ago to evict people who are thought to be squatters from a big chunk of land in Wakiso.
The land allegedly belonged to clients of Bakiza who had found themselves unable to evict the squatters by themselves hence enlisting the services of a military general to do the job impossible on their behalf.
Aware possibly of the gravity of the matter, Kayanja has since written to the court pleading to talk peace with Bakiza other than going through a shameful trial.
In spite of the fact that court hasn’t find time yet to hear Kayanja’s application, the trial judge will be relieved that the military man wants to resolve the matter since the courts of law have a huge backlog of cases already many of which remain unresolved years after they were reported.
