Bemanya Twebaze is finally out as Uganda Telecoms’s company administrator and in comes former Uganda Law Society President Ruth Sebatindira after she was announced today by court following a presidential directive for the company to get a new administrator.
Justice Lydia Mugambe of the Civil Division of the High Court made the ruling on Thursday, January 02, 2020, after hearing of submissions in regard to an application in which the Uganda Contribution Employees’ Contributory Pension Scheme (UCECPS) were seeking to vary the deed of administration of UTL to replace him with another person.
Through their lawyers of Kwesigabo, Bamwine and Walubiri Advocates, the creditors accuse Mr Bemanya of failing to perform his roles in regard to collecting the outstanding amounts due to UTL from government departments.
They allege that Mr Bemanya failed to find an investor who can recapitalise and operate UTL as well as paying all claims against the company on time.
“That I know that the purposes of taking UTL into administration was to enable the company reorganise its affairs in such a way as to be able to settle the dues owed UCECPS and several other UTL creditors, rather than going into immediate liquidation,” Mr David Nkojjo, the UCECPS chairperson, said in a sworn statement.
Who is Ruth Sebatindira ?
Ruth Sebatindira is a Senior Counsel and past President of the Uganda Law Society( ULS) from 2013 – 2016. She is a currently a Founding Partner at Ligomarc Advocates since 2003. At ULS, Ruth has built both legal expertise and business acumen out of her twenty three years’ experience in commercial litigation, corporate transactions and tax advisory assignments. Previously, her major areas of work included; corporate insolvency, company/shareholder disputes, lender enforcement actions and trademarks litigation.
Ruth’s current assignments include; tax litigation and tax advisory, energy and infrastructure projects contracts and negotiations and oil and gas agreements.
She is a Commissioner at the Judicial Service Commission which advises the President of Uganda on the appointment of Judges, exercises disciplinary control over Judicial officers and advises on the administration of Justice in Uganda. In this role, she focuses on improving access to justice and restoring judicial integrity.
Ruth Sebatindira has helped to set up the Women Lawyers Committee at the Uganda Law Society in 2011, and served as its first Chair. She is a regular speaker at women’s and leadership conferences and mentors young professionals. Ruth also speaks to children in schools about responsible leadership.
As Board Chair at Special Olympics Uganda, she works to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities through Olympic-type sports.
Ruth Sebatindira has an LLM from The University of Manchester, UK. She is a member of Uganda Law Society, East Africa Law Society, International Bar Association, International Fiscal Association and Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).
