Minerals firm director faces arrest over Shs268b debt
Isaac Musumba (L) says he needs the debt settled. Mathias Magoola (R) is the managing director of Dei Minerals.
What you need to know:
- Mr Twine Muganga, a court bailiff, has been ordered to effect the arrest of Mr Magoola by March 25.
- The money in question was to be paid in accordance with the earlier consent order that was entered on September 9, 2019.
The Commercial Division of the High Court has ordered for the arrest of Mr Mathias Magoola, the managing director of Dei Minerals International, a minerals firm, for failure to pay over Shs268b in legal fees to former minister of Urban Development Isaac Musumba.
The warrant notice was given to Mr Twine Muganga, a court bailiff, to effect the arrest of Mr Magoola by March 25.
“These are to command you to arrest the said Magoola Mathias and unless the said Magoola pays you the sum of Shs268b as costs of executing this process, bring the said Magoola before court with all convenient speed,” reads in part the warrant of arrest order of court dated February 24.
The money in question was to be paid in accordance with the earlier consent order that was entered on September 9, 2019.
Core to the consent was that M/S Isaac Isanga Musumba & Co. Advocates, a law firm owned by former minister Musumba, is entitled to the Shs268b.
However, Mr Magoola has not honoured the said consent agreement.
The money in question is 30 percent of the decretal sum of $211,459,500 that Mr Magoola and his Dei Minerals International firm earned from Videocon Industries Ltd, a UK-India based firm, for breach of contract.
Mr Musumba had represented Dei International in a legal dispute, which saw his clients compensated with $200 million (over Shs700b).
However, Mr Musumba claims he was not compensated his 30 percent of the total decretal sum, hence running to court to compel the minerals company to pay him.
Mr Magoola runs a multibillion pharmaceutical factory in Matugga near Kampala.
He rose to prominence at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when then Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga introduced him alongside his American partners to President Museveni saying they had discovered a cure to the deadly global virus.
But it later turned out that the group was just intending to manufacture a Covid-19 sanitiser.
The factory
President Museveni and Kenya Deputy President William Ruto officiated the laying of a foundation stone for the construction of the multibillion pharmaceutical factory in Matugga near Kampala in June last year.
