The Court of Appeal has dismissed Bank of Uganda’s application to join the Ham Enterprises vs Diamond Trust Bank case as Amicus Curie (Friends of Court) because it is not neutral in the matter.
“A friend of Court must be a neutral and impartial person, not one who claims to have been affected by the decision of court,” the court ruled.
The judges who included Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, Kenneth Kakuru and Christopher Madrama ruled that its not proper for BoU which opposed the High Court judgement over the same matter to join the case as it had already taken sides.
BoU publicly sided with DTB to criticise the ruling of High Court Judge Henry Peter Adonyo in the case late last year. Adonyo ruled that the process in which DTB Kenya lent Ham Enterprises Shs120bn was illegal since it didn’t have a licence from BoU as provided by law.
Ham Enterpises is a property development company run by youthful tycoon Hamis Kiggundu.
DTB was ordered to refund the money they had collected from Ham’s accounts as loan repayment and the land titles that had been deposited as collateral.
DTB appealed the ruling and BoU publicly protested the ruling, reasoning that foreign banks lending deposits held in jurisdictions other than Uganda are regulated and supervised by their home authorities.
Court has now advised BoU to join the case as an interested party and make an application by February 3 to allow other parties to respond. BoU’s application will be heard on February 17.
