Originally Syndicated on June 1, 2024 @ 7:00 am
The High Court of Kampala has mandated that Ham Kiggundu’s brother, Haruna Sentongo, repay Orient Bank for interest on loans that he received totaling over 10 billion Shillings.
According to Judge Richard Wejuli Wabwire of the Commercial Division, Haruna Sentongo had, in fact, eliminated the debts he was attempting to use in his lawsuit to avoid repaying. In 2018, Sentongo hurried to court to get injunctions against Orient Bank’s demand for payment, which at the time was close to 10 billion shillings.
Concerning Haruna Sentongo
Haruna Sentongo was born on November 30, 1987, in Kalungu, a town in central Uganda that is part of the larger Masaka region. He is the son of hajji Haruna Segawa and Nakayija Jalia, who own a sizable amount of Kampala real estate.
About his career
Haruna completed his elementary education in Masaka, his O-level coursework at Kabojja International School in Kampala, and his A-level coursework at East High School in Ntinda. He studied at Makerere University, where he received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Therefore, he is a businessman, Entrepreneur, and a Real Estate Developer.
Court documents show that Haruna Sentongo obtained several loans from Orient Bank in 2015 to finance the building of Kampala’s Nakayiza Mall. He also asked for numerous loans in order to finance his import apparel business. He further asked for an additional $3 million to build Segawa Market in Kampala.
However, according to Haruna Sentongo’s court filings, Orient Bank obtained his finance under incredibly unfair, unethical, insufficient, exorbitant, and ambiguous terms and conditions with the goal of unfairly benefiting at its expense. Additionally, he asserted that Orient Bank had committed outright fraud as well as fraudulent acts under duress, improper direction, undue influence, and pressure. Furthermore, he claims that by making fraudulent and mistaken transactions on his account, the bank frequently broke its legally binding and fiduciary obligations to him, which made it harder for him to do his job and exposed him to undue financial risk, psychological torture, mental anguish, and agony.
Sentongo requested that the court grant him special damages for the loss of his company and rental revenue of 500,000,000 Shillings each month beginning in February 2016.
A fresh case was launched by Orient Bank against Haruna Sentongoto.
The next year, Haruna Sentongoto was the target of a new lawsuit by Orient Bank, which demanded repayment of a loan totaling more than 10 billion shillings. Orient Bank claimed in court filings that it had given Sentongo multiple loans since May 2015, but that he had defaulted on them. The bank listed several loans it had given to Sentongo totaling 9.695 billion shillings; as a result of its bankruptcy, this amount has since escalated to 10.384 billion shillings.
Furthermore, the Bank asked the court to grant it general compensation totaling $2 billion to offset the damage to its reputation caused by Haruna Sentongo’s complaint. Because they all raised similar concerns and requested identical prayers, the two actions were merged during the proceedings and decided simultaneously.
Wabwire concluded in his ruling that Haruna Sentongo could not now go back and contest payment because she had, in reality, requested and been granted the aforementioned loans.”The petitioner cannot now attempt to have the mortgages ruled unlawful because he has admitted that he received large sums of money from the mortgages themselves. He is incapable of accepting or rejecting. The settlement agreement with Wabwire includes the following sentence: “He is prevented from acknowledging that a transaction is legitimate and so reaping benefits to which he may only be entitled on the basis that it is legitimate, only to later claim that it is invalidated in order to obtain another benefit. This is due to the concept of approval and reprobation.”
The bank engaged in dishonesty.
It goes on to say that there is no evidence to support the allegation that the bank committed fraud by billing Haruna Sentongo for more money than he actually received. If there isn’t any evidence of any illegal activity that could have justified the transaction, the Facility offer letters and mortgages are legitimate, enforceable contracts between the parties. The court determines if the contracts between the plaintiff and defendant are valid and enforceable under the law. As a result, the accusations of fabrication in this particular case are unsupported by any evidence. The plaintiff was found not to have provided any evidence of coercion or unduly harsh conditions, according to the decision.
The judge further noted that Sentongo’s threat to have his real estate publicly auctioned if he did not pay or have it sold to repay the unpaid loan did not constitute force or pressure but rather was a reasonable economic demand, which is not illegal in and of themselves.
Justice Wabwire further criticized Sentongo’s claims that the loans given to him lacked adequate accompanying contracts as being deceitful. He said that every piece of proof presented to the court had numerous loan offer letters that Haruna Sentongo and the lender had officially signed. “I am certain that the interest charged was in line with the facilities’ pre-agreed conditions. The defendant had a right to the compensation it received and the interest it was charged. Considering the unfair enrichment concept and the legislation. I think the assertion is unsupportable and unjustified. With the Defendant Bank, Plaintiff engaged into a number of credit arrangements. The agreement for the aforementioned facilities stated that the plaintiff would pay them back with interest.
The Final Word
But because Plaintiff neglected to perform this obligation, the Bank is now owed money for loans that were given but not repaid. In addition to the 10.384 billion shillings he owed the bank in debt, Haruna Sentongo was also ordered to pay 150 million shillings in total compensation. In addition to awarding the bank court costs, the judge additionally imposed a 22 percent interest rate on the two amounts from the date of the ruling until Sentongo makes full repayment.
