A High Court judge in Kampala has ordered DFCU Bank to unfreeze five accounts belonging to Dr. Dennis Daniel Ssemugenyi, a business leader whose financial support had been aiding the education of over 1,000 vulnerable children.
The accounts, registered under Daniel Dennis Investment Group Ltd., had been frozen for nearly ten months following allegations of money laundering. However, Justice Isaac Muwata ruled on Thursday that the state had failed to present sufficient evidence to justify the continued restriction.
“This Court finds that the continued freezing order is neither correct, legal, nor proper under Section 48 of the Criminal Procedure Code Act. I therefore order DFCU Bank to unfreeze the accounts with immediate effect,” the judge stated.
He emphasized that the freeze had significantly disrupted education sponsorship programs for children under the age of 15, noting that the impact constituted a critical social concern.
“There is no indication that lifting the freeze would irreparably compromise the ongoing investigations or enable immediate dissipation of the funds,” Justice Muwata added.
The state had more than ten months to gather evidence but failed to make substantive progress, the judge observed. He also dismissed claims of suspicious transactions and concealment as speculative and unproven.
Dr. Ssemugenyi’s lawyer, Annet Okwera, welcomed the ruling and criticized the prolonged freeze, which she said had caused serious hardship.
“Banks have regulations, but they should not violate the rights of account holders. My client was supporting orphans and vulnerable children, all of whom have been left stranded during this period,” Okwera told journalists.
She further revealed that although the accounts were formally frozen in September 2024, they had been inaccessible since June of that year.
The freeze followed a complaint from Thorington Capital Markets Ltd., which alleged that Dr. Ssemugenyi had obtained $120,000 through false pretenses in a failed $35 million non-recourse loan deal.
