Controversial city lawyer Robert Kirunda could be having second thoughts about being associated with Mrs Justine Bagyenda, the sacked former Executive Director, Banking Supervision before Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE).
Kirunda who between November 2005 to November 2011 was a Senior Legal Associate at JN Kirkland & Associates has been accused of having conflict as MPs continue to grill Bank of Uganda officials over the closed banks.
Kirunda, who is a founding partner at Kirunda & Wasige Advocates, last week represented Bagyenda in parliament and told the legislators that Bagyenda was away in America and wouldn’t be able to make it to the probe committee hearings for some ten days.
Robert Kirunda was who is currently working with Kirunda & Wasige Advocates where he is a founding partner, was in from November 2005 to November 2011 a Senior Legal Associate at JN Kirkland & Associates.
JN Kirkland was hired by BoU to advise on an exit strategy.
Investigations however show that Bank of Uganda officials, most of whom are under oath are probably lying through their teeth, to the committee because the law firm is one of the most prominent lawfirms in the country. Its founders, Kakembo Katende and Jackie Naluyima Katende are also prominent lawyers in town.
It is them who recommended and or identified Octavian Advisors that eventually incorporated Nile River Acquisition Company, the ones to whom BoU sold the bad assets at incredible discounts.
Nile River Acquisition then appointed Sil Investments, as an agent to recover the bad loans. It is interesting to know that Sil Investments was only incorporated in Uganda, only a month before Nile River Acquisition bought the loans from BoU.
To attempt to reach the bottom of these questions, it is important to understand who NRAC Company is and who are the people behind it?
Since NRAC was registered offshore, investigators and MPs may want to deeply look into who actually owns Sil Investments? The Financial Intelligence Authority, needs to track the recovered moneys paid to Sil Investments; where did they end up? Was the money actually remitted to Mauritius or did the money stay in Uganda and if it did, who had access to it?
A source at Parliament revealed that JN Kirkland also represented Sil investments. They issued all legal instructions to lawyers who led the recovery process.
So certainly, Kirunda was a beneficiary from this whole process and was and is in bed with BoU, especially Sekabira, who led the liquidation process.
Sekabira could now have chosen a better man, who knows all the dirt to help and or advise him cover it up.
