WANTED! Court finally lands a blow on crafty Mp Chemonges
Chemonges (also inset) preparing to jump into his Wiljon firm branded car
Court has finally landed a blow on a crafty MP whose name and company have been synonymous with dubious real estate deals.
The truth of the matter is that Kween County MP-elect Williams Chemonges through his Kireka-based Wiljon Estates has been battling several cases or complaints against them. But curiously all these matters have been ending at the police.
But this time around one of the cases ended in court and the progress is so far so good.
Juliet Hatanga, the Deputy registrar of the High Court Commercial Division has now issued an arrest warrant against Chemonges following a Shs340m debt dispute.
The furious registrar further appointed Court Bailiff Simon Peter Ochieng to execute the warrant of arrest after the legislator failed to appear before her court on 16th September 2022 or send his lawyer to explain to the Court why he should not be imprisoned for failing to pay the money.
“The last time the matter was adjourned, the parties were all present yet the Court has not received any communication from the debtor nor his lawyer. Therefore, Chemonges has failed to show cause why execution should not be issued against him,” She said.
The arrest warrant followed submissions from counsel Justine Akineza who represented the applicants Mable Tumuheise and Justus Bagamuhunda who sued the legislator over breach of contract.
Akineza told the Court that Chemonges abused the 10 days given him by the presiding deputy registrar to negotiate the matter before the Court gives its final ruling.
They reported that he even declined to attend or send a representative even after assuring them that he was going to attend so that they strategise on how he was going to pay the said debt.
In 2019, the applicants contracted Chemonges through his company Wiljon Estate Limited to construct for them Apartments on their land on Kyadondo Block 223, plot 1667 at Nabwoojo, Namugongo in Wakiso district.
The legislator’s company was supposed to hand over the finished Apartment within 7 months which he failed to fulfil.
He requested for extension of the period when to complete the said Apartments and three more months were given to him.
Both parties signed another agreement showing that the defendant had to complete the entire construction within the additional months otherwise the contract would be terminated.
The applicants added that the defendant still failed and even failed to fit floor tiles in the apartments which resulted in a suit against him.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
In 2020, Chemonges was arraigned before City Hall magistrate, Valerian Tumuhimbise, who charged him with obtaining sh169m by false pretense and forging documents. His court cases are registered as CO 802/2020 and CO 800/2020 respectively.
The prosecution alleged that on March 12, 2019, while at KCCA headquarters in Kampala, Chemonges obtained sh169m from the KCCA SACCO; money which was meant to sell land for the KCCA workers’ savings association.
According to prosecution, Chemonges failed to hand over the land to the SACCO, yet he had allegedly promised that it was available and situated on block 169, plot 710 in Mukono district.
The prosecution further alleged that Chemonges forged documents pertaining to the said land, which he reportedly promised to sell to the KCCA SACCO. However, Chemonges denied all the charges.
While in court, several police officers from different police stations brought to court files in which various persons accused him of conning them. Among the files was that of MP Driwaru involving obtaining sh400m in a bogus land deal, a case which was also read to him.
According to Driwaru, she gave Chemonges the money after he allegedly promised to sell land to her, but he never fulfilled his part of the bargain.
Last year the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Martin Okoth Ochola, the police’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) based in Kireka commenced multiple investigations into Chemonges.
This time, the victim was a banker who reportedly sold his residence in Mbalwa-Kyaliwajjala, Kira Municipality, Wakiso District to Chemonges who for many years has been into the business of buying and reselling houses mostly to MPs. He is said to be the one who scouts for them land in areas of Kira and Namugongo, especially the new entrants.
Chemonges didn’t pay up all the money and defaulted yet he had already taken possession of the swanky residence which the banker abandoned after realizing the compound didn’t come out well as he wanted.
Chemonges paid the money but stayed with a balance of Shs15m which he failed to pay and eventually surrendered a low-value plot of land in deep rural villages of Mukono.
As the banker chased for his balance after a valuation report put the rural Mukono land at Ugx4m as opposed to the Ugx15m that was pending, Chemonges, who is good at sweet-talking people, came up with a very tempting deal. This was a prime piece of land his company was selling on top of Kireka Hill near Kabaka’s palace.
The banker was looking for another property having been let down by the one in Mbalwa and was once again approached by a one Rogers who he initially didn’t know was Chemonges’ agent. This was 2018 and the banker parted with his hard-earned Ugx150m. Because Chemonges, who had bought the Kireka hill land from the owners of Mukono based Jobia hotel, couldn’t immediately produce the title, the two signed an agreement indicating he would get the balance of Ugx50m upon delivery of the title. Eventually Chemonges rescued the title from the bank [UGAFODE] and upon getting it, he played hide and seek with the banker who had already put up 9 rental apartment units on the Kireka hill land.
He put the rentals after Chemonges assured him all was well and that the title would be delivered.
Instead, when he finally got the title from the bank, Chemonges reportedly went behind the banker’s back and sold the same land a 2nd time. The innocent 2nd buyer was Emmanuel Bakama, a wealthy UPDF soldier, who parted with Ugx282m and Chemonges secretly passed over to him the title which had been deposited in UGAFODE. The neighbors raised a red flag warning Afande Bakama that the land he had bought belonged to someone else [the banker]. They told him about the banker who they saw developing the plot from scratch to eventually put up those modern rental apartments.
As the banker struggled to look for Chemonges to inquire why he hid from him the title only to eventually give it to Bakama simply because he paid him more money, the soldier turned up warning the banker never to trespass on his property. The banker, who is also well connected, tried to cause the arrest of Chemonges only to be blocked by a powerful police officer at a rank of SSP who reportedly threatened to crush anyone who tried to arrest his friend William. When he realized the banker was more connected than he had thought, Chemonges decided to call in his best friend –a Major- whose wife is a powerful Colonel then attached to the State House. It was then that the banker was advised to petition the IGP directly since he clearly had a good case.
Ochola assigned his PA on legal affairs Fred Paul Mirondo to liaise with Kireka based SIU to ensure Chemonges and the police officers who were protecting him to mistreat his innocent victims are apprehended and brought to book. That is how GEF/118/2020 of SIU Kireka was opened up to guide the general criminal investigations into all the land transactions Chemonges has curiously been conducting for the past more than 10 years.
The IGP was shocked to learn that this actually wasn’t the first time defrauding-related complaints were being lodged with SIU against Chemonges. Some aides had advised the IGP to broaden the investigations to look into the circumstances under which an outgoing female MP months earlier had hired Kanyamas travelling in a drone to confine Chemonges until he refunded her money having failed to deliver the land she had paid for. The IGP was also implored to inquire into the circumstances under which the Pakistanis, who had hired Chemonges to construct a modern car bond for them opposite MTAC in Nakawa, bitterly fell out with him. There are also complaints from buyers who purchased land from Chemonges’ large housing estate in Kiwanga on grounds that the man was unable to promptly give them their titles.
Indeed, even after becoming MP, Chemonges, who many lands dealers in Kira fear because of his connections, intends to remain an active real estate dealer though the courts and various investigations have greatly dented his standing as a major actor in Kira Municipality’s real estate business. This publication could not reach Chemonges for a comment.
But he previously told us that these have been campaigns aimed at tarnishing his name.
“All this is about politics. Why aren’t they talking about the good things I have done? I have been dealing with Mps for the last ten years…There is no transaction I cannot handle,” Chemonges then said. DO YOU HAVE A HOT STORY (CHEATERS, DIVORCE, VIDEOS, CORRUPTION, LAND WRANGLES, EXPOSES …ETAL) YOU WOULD LIKE US TO PUBLISH? CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAIL redpeppertips@gmail.com
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