The law council on Friday struck city lawyer Bob Kasango off the list of practicing advocates in Uganda after he was found guilty of gross unethical conduct.
It means he will no longer be allowed to practice law in Uganda. However, Kasango told The Observer on Friday that he will challenge the decision. He said the law council did not notify him. This, he said, erodes the fundamental principle of justice.
“I am not really bothered by the decision to strike me off the roll. I decided not to actively practice law for the last one year and the decision is really not anything that will make me lose sleep but what concerns me the most is the direction the profession is taking. Nothing is more important in any judicial hearing than fair and impartial hearing,” Kasango said.
The council’s disciplinary committee heard that Kasango had fleeced a client, Vivine Mukuru, and a property buyer, John Kaweesa, of hundreds of millions of shillings over a transaction involving a purchase of a house.
ORIGIN OF THE CASE
In 2015, Kasango was instructed by Vivine Mukuru to sell on her behalf a house on Plot 30A Kololo. John Kaweesa showed interest and offered to buy it at $385,000, which Kasango accepted.
To prove his seriousness, Kaweesa made an initial payment of $40,000 and later another $153,200 to Kasango. After these money transfers were made, Kasango handed over the house to Kaweesa in the presence of witnesses Paul Bitarabeho and Swaib Mutyaba.
However, after occupying the house, Kaweesa was informed by businessman Edward Kiyenje that he [Kiyenje] had already purchased the same house for $80,000.
Kiyenje even showed Kaweesa the memorandum of understanding and the sales agreement to the effect. Furious, Kaweesa confronted Kasango and demanded that he refunds the money he had already paid. Kasango agreed to refund the money. He then issued five cheques of $38,500 which all bounced.
It got worse for Kasango when the original owner of the property, Mukuru, revealed that he [Kasango] had not remitted to him all the money paid by Kaweesa.
For this reason, Kaweesa dragged Kasango to the law council in 2015 seeking to force him to refund his money and to have him punished over unethical behaviour.
On Friday, the council found him guilty and recommended that he be struck off the list of practicing advocates on top of refunding the money (with interest) which had already been paid to him.
“The reputation of the profession is more important than the fortunes of an individual. It is for this reason that errant advocates should sternly and swiftly be punished for their misdeeds, lest the legal profession ceases to be referred to as a learned and honorable profession,” said John Mary Kiwuuwa, who chaired the disciplinary committee of the council.
KASANGO SPEAKS OUT
On Friday, Kasango told The Observer that he was shocked by the council’s ruling, describing it as unfair.
He said: “I am really shocked to hear that the hearing was made. The members who decided the case got the facts of the case wrong and clearly they never made any reference to my defense. They took complainant’s allegation for gospel truth. So, they say that they struck me off, for how long is it? Is it for life?”
He claimed that he was never Kaweesa’s lawyer and, therefore, did not defraud him of even a shilling.
“What the law council has done is to unilaterally cancel the contract between the buyer and seller. Why is the law council silent about the money that was paid to the owner? What is its fate?” he wondered.
He said his offer to refund the money to Kaweesa was in good faith, not admission of wrongdoing.
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