Allibhai: Man with 700 departed Asians’ properties

When former president Idi Amin expelled Asians who did not hold Ugandan citizenship from Uganda in 1972, he allowed those who had registered properties to declare them to the government before leaving the country within 90 days.

Amin, who ruled Uganda with an iron fist for eight years, accused the minority Asians of disloyalty, non-integration and commercial malpractices before declaring that he was “giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans.”

Some information indicates that only about 4,000 of the 23,000 Asians who had been granted Ugandan citizenship opted to remain in the country, while majority, who feared for their lives, joined the more than 50,000 others who had been given 90 days to leave the country.

Most of them, who were British citizens, went to the United Kingdom, while others fled to Canada, Kenya and India, among other destinations.

Amin is quoted to have said at the time: “We are determined to make the ordinary Ugandan master of his own destiny, and above all to see that he enjoys the wealth of his country. Our deliberate policy is to transfer the economic control of Uganda into the hands of Ugandans, for the first time in our country’s history.”

Despite the expulsion, one of Amin’s decrees became an Act of Parliament in 1973. This law is known as the Assets of Departed Asians Act”, which commenced on December 7, 1973. This Act gave the departing Asians a leeway to declare their properties, including stock left behind in licenced businesses and these were vested in the government of Uganda.

It is the same law that established the Departed Asians Properties Custodian Board (DAPCB), which, up to now, is responsible for the management of the expropriated properties under the supervision of the minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

Much as Amin, after high level negotiations in 1975, through the British High Commission, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and the Indian government, compensated more than 400 departed Asians, who were not interested in returning to Uganda, other Asians decided to repossess their properties under the Expropriated Properties Act, 1982.

But because of uncertainty due to the civil war during the Obote II government, most of the Asians started returning to Uganda after President Museveni captured power, and they had to do this before October 1993.

Repossession
At the time of repossession, Asians interested in having their properties back had 120 days to return to Ugandan and take them over after receiving a certificate of repossession.

Much as the total number of expropriated properties is estimated to be over 10,000, there are claims in the DAPCB that over 4,000 were not repossessed, and most of them, together with those compensated for and those redeemed from commercial banks where their original proprietors had mortgaged them before expulsion, have been dubiously acquired or repossessed by individuals who are depriving the government of lots of money supposed to be generated from rent or disposal.

Currently, a select taskforce of the parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) is investigating the dubious acquisition and repossession of these properties following several petitions to the Speaker by the former owners claiming to be denied a chance to repossess their properties.

The 10-man taskforce headed by Makindye East MP Ibrahim Kasozi has since July last year been probing a number of individuals of Asian descent, Ugandan businessmen and women, top government officials, and companies over their alleged illegal takeover of the expropriated properties.

Enter Muhammad Allibhai
One of the main targets of the Cosase select taskforce is renowned property manager Muhammad Allibhai. Having returned from Canada in 1987, Mr Allibhai, who is the chairman of the Association of Expropriated Properties Owners Limited, is wanted by the MPs to explain how he got powers of attorney to repossess and manage 691 properties.

In the course of the investigation, the taskforce got possession of a management list of the 691 properties that Mr Allibhai manages for about 1,000 clients (original proprietors) who never returned to Uganda. He manages these properties under his company, Alderbridge Real Estate & Management Limited.

With at least 332 of these properties concentrated in Kampala, others are in several parts of the country, including Mbarara, Masaka, Jinja, Mbale, Fort Portal, Busia, Iganga, Kasese and Soroti, among other towns.

Currently, Mr Allibhai is on the run after the police failed to arrest and produce him to testify before the MPs on Thursday following a warrant of arrest issued on Tuesday after he declined to respond to invitations on three occasions.

He last appeared before the taskforce on September 11 last year when he, while testifying on oath, told MPs that he manages more than 400 properties and that he gets instructions from the owners of the properties to collect and remit rent, and that also, where necessary, he has sold some properties and remitted the proceeds to the owners.

Mr Allibhai told MPs that after returning to Uganda in 1987, he was three years later given powers of attorney by owners of 400 properties to help in the repossession process because they were scattered in Canada and United Kingdom.

He said the owners of the properties cumulatively assigned him the responsibility through a loose association called the Uganda Property Group.

Asked for documentary evidence that the Uganda Property Group existed and gave him instructions to repossess properties on behalf of the owners, Mr Allibhai said he could not remember properly.

“I have lost memory of what happened because it is a long time (ago) but I have the files which I can peruse through and retrieve the information. These people gave me powers of attorney through Uganda Property Group,” he said then.

He told the MPs that he also repossessed two properties on behalf of his family, but lost one in a court case.

On Tuesday, Mr Allibhai told this newspaper in a telephone interview that he could not respond to the invitations by the MPs because the ongoing probe in government is subjudice since he and other targeted Ugandan Asians challenged it in court. This was shortly after a warrant of arrest had been issued against him.

A Constitutional Petition number 22 of 2019, was filed in the Constitutional Court on October 14, over a month after Mr Allibhai and some of his co-petitioners had testified before the Cosase taskforce.

It is on this note that Parliament insisted that the probe must continue because the petition was filed after it started and some of the petitioners had already appeared and testified.

The petitioners are Mohamed Allibhai, Navinchandra Kakubhai Radia, Praful Patel, Pradip Nandlal Karia, Minex Nandlal Karia, Alnasir Gulan Hussein Habib Virani, Piyush Pravin Kotecha, Meenakshi Pravin Kotecha, and Kunnal Pradip Nandlal Karia.

There are also four companies namely; Property Services Ltd, Alderbirdge Real Estate & Management Ltd, Vora (U) Ltd, and The Association of Expropriated Properties’ Owners Limited.

The petition states: “The act of DAPCB and Cosase sub-committee targeting the petitioners for disfavour in respect of repossessed property based on their race, colour and ethnic origin and when both have no proprietary interest in the repossessed property constitutes a second expropriation and is inconsistent with and/ or in contravention of Articles 2(2), 21 (1)(2)(3), 24, 26 (1)(2), 32 (1)(2, 40 (2) and 42 of the Constitution.”

The matter, in which they list the Attorney General, the DAPCB and Mr George Willian Bizibu, the DAPCB executive secretary, is yet to be scheduled for hearing.

Meanwhile, one of the petitioners whom the taskforce has continuously invited, appeared on Thursday. Mr Praful Chandra Patel, who is accused of fraudulently repossessing more than 300 properties, is expected back in Parliament on March 25, to provide proof on the legal nexus he had with original proprietors of those properties, whose repossession certificates he picked up from DAPCB.

Forging powers of attorney
On Tuesday, while testifying before the taskforce over the ownership conflict surrounding Plot 32 Gweri Road, Mr Martin Obonyo, a petitioner to the sub-committee, alleged that Mr Allibhai, in 2012, forcibly repossessed from him the property that houses the Post Bank Soroti Branch and has since been collecting rent.

Mr Obonyo, who constructed the house that is valued at Shs1.1b after he was allocated the property by the government, says he was getting monthly rent of Shs3m from the bank, told the taskforce that Mr Allibhai forged powers of attorney and a death certificate for the original proprietor of the property by the names of Bachoo Bhanji Muman.

“Mr Allibhai claimed that the proprietor was dead and he presented to the Custodian Board a death certificate and a Will purportedly left by the said deceased person,” Mr Leonard Otee, the petitioner’s lawyer, said.

The claims in the petition were corroborated by Kampala Central MP Mohamed Nsereko, who confirmed that when the taskforce visited London, UK in January, they interfaced with 93-year-old Mr Bhanji.

“The man (Mr Bhanji) is alive. He came with a daughter when he met us in London and he nearly wept when he heard that someone had pronounced him dead. He is ready to come here and testify,” Mr Nsereko said.

The copy of the death certificate allegedly forged by Mr Allibhai indicates that Bhanji died on April 2, 1993, at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, London.

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