In December 2006, the husband of Mary Martin, a 60 year-old woman based in Kabale, fell ill. He was flown to the United States for treatment. However along the way, the medical bills became prohibitive and she urgently needed money to save her husband.
What did she do? She contacted a one Moses Kakuru for a Shs 9.5 million loan. The only security Mary Martin had was a plot of land on Johnston Close in Kabale Municipality. It was a prime piece of land valued at Shs 350 million at the time.
Since she could not quickly get a buyer, yet her husband was in need of urgent assistance, she offered it to Kakuru as security. Remember, she needed Shs 9.5 million but had to offer land valued at Shs 350 million as security.
Kakuru was not a bad person, as Ugandans say. Sensing the potential of getting this prized asset, she insisted that they draft a land sale, NOT a loan agreement.
Desperate, Mary Martin agreed, confident that somehow, she would repay the money and rescue the plot.
Things went awry from there. Before long, she defaulted on the loan, and Kakuru took the plot and transferred its land title to his name.
She ran to court.
In the High Court in Kabale, Mary Martin insisted it was a loan, not a sale, and accused Kakuru of fraudulently taking her land, which she valued at Shs 350 million, plus Shs 150 million for structures she had built.
Mary Martin even claimed the plot was family land whose sale needed the consent of her sick husband. Since he did not give his approval, Kakuru could not claim it was his.
She asked the court to cancel the land title, award her Shs 500 million in special damages, general damages for trespass, punitive damages, a permanent injunction and legal costs.
But Kakuru told court he never gave Mary Martin a loan. According to him, she clearly offered the land for sale and the agreement was clear.
He testified that he inspected the plot, confirmed that Mary Martin’s lease was due for renewal. He said he paid her the agreed amount after the sale agreement was drafted by a court bailiff, Elkanah Turyazooka.
Kakuru also said the transfer forms were signed willingly in the office of lawyer Felix Bakanyabonera on May 7, 2007.
Mary Martin admitted signing the sale agreement, which was written in English — a language she said she understands well. She also admitted receiving Shs 9.5 million, though she insisted she later tried to repay it in instalments.
She told the court she made payments of Shs 4 million and Shs 2.2 million, and later attempted to pay Shs 5 million, which she said Kakuru refused to acknowledge. Kakuru, meanwhile, sold the land to Rosette Kyampeire, earning a handosme profit.
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Justice Karoli Lwanga Ssemogerere, who presided over the case, said Mary Martin’s story was confusing because she kept changing it.
At one point, the judge said, she denied signing the transfer forms, but when the court reminded her that the forms were part of the exhibits she submitted, she changed her position.
He said her explanations were “not believable”.
Ssemogerere said if Mary Martin believed she was forced to sign the documents, she should have gone to the police.
“She had no explanation why no report was made to law enforcement,” he noted.
On spousal consent, Ssemogerere explained that the land did not qualify as family land at the time because it was undeveloped and no one lived on it.
“This land may have become family land in the future, but it was not family land at the time the sale agreement was entered into,” he ruled.
In the end, Justice Ssemogerere ruled that Mary Martin had failed to prove fraud or illegality in the sale of Plot 2 Johnston Close in Kabale and ordered that Kakuru’s title remains intact.
“The entire claim by Martin against Kakuru fails,” Ssemogerere said.
“Kyampeire is the lawful owner of the suit land.”
So that is how Mary Martin lost land valued at Shs 350 million over a loan of Shs 9.5 million.
Will she appeal? Let’s keep our ears to the ground.
