UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | The president of Uganda Law Society (ULS), Pheona Nabasa Wall, has been sued by Steven Kalali (City Lawyer) for signing what they say are “suspicious” Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the Kingdom of Buganda and Crane Management Services (CMS) in May this year. CMS is a real estate management company and a subsidiary of Ruparelia Group of Companies which Dr Sudhir Ruparelia privately owns.
The CMS MOU was signed on 3rd May, allowing the Uganda Law Society members six months of free rent at their property as many members of ULS lost their offices due to Covid-19. CMS would benefit as their buildings are currently empty. CMS also agreed to partition the premises free of charge with ULS. As for the Buganda Kingdom, they signed the MOU on 9th May, six days later.
The MOU came at a good time for ULS as they sought to expand to different regions out of Kampala. Explaining the details of this MOU, Wall said:
“We went into an agreement with the Private Sector Foundation Uganda to see that we create libraries and Resource Centres in different regions, and because of that we approached Buganda for Central if they could give us space. Buganda gave us three offices in Entebbe, Mpigi and Masaka, and that is the MOU we signed, to enable is to those services there, and also offer the legal services in those areas.”
Issues with the MOU
General Concerns on Both MOUs
- The MOUs were signed without the consent of the society members.
- The MOUs were signed without a general meeting of members, which highlights bad governance of law.
- There are no details about how they derived the terms and conditions.
Concerns on CMS MOU:
- The MOU is one-sided and unclear.
- No indication how CMS would benefit from this MOU.
Timeline of Events:
Here is the timeline of events surrounding the lawsuit:
- Lawyer Steven Kalali submitted a request to ULS look at the MOUs.
- There was no response from ULS.
- A Notice of Motion was submitted on 1st July at the Chief Magistrate Court of Nakawa.
- Kalali claims mental anguish, psychological torture, and financial loss for filing the suit.
- Wall speaks out in an interview admitting that she received Kalali’s request and claims to have responded to it, but he did not provide an address for the MOUs to be dropped.
- Wall explains that she finally heard from Kalali, and they agreed to wait for the lockdown to end to share the MOUs.
- Wall claimed that ULS informed its members after signing the MOU as it was in their best interest.
- Summaries of the MOUs were provided to members.
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