Kutesa’s wife named in the sale of Crane bank to Chinese

By our reporter

Days after her husband being implicated in receiving bribes from Chinese financial and energy conglomerate, Edith Kutesa wife to Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa has also been linked to have taken part in trying to sell Crane Bank to Chinese investors.

It is alleged that after Minister Sam Kutesa getting in contact with the Chinese Conglomerate, he also connected his wife Edith who in turn opted to sell investors an idea of securing Crane Bank.

According to the complaint before New York Magistrate Kevin Fox where Sam Kutesa is accused of receiving a $500000 (about Shs. 1.8Billion) bribe , Ms Kutesa made attempts to interest the Chinese conglomerate in acquiring a bank in Uganda, — whose description by the court documents fits Crane Bank.

Chimpreports, an online news site states in her email correspondences with the Chinese, Ms Kutesa went as far as creating linkages between the conglomerate and officials at Bank of Uganda, particularly the Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende.

On October 13, 2017, Ms Kutesa said in her email to Ho: “The central bank official you met during your visit has contacted us to inform you about the possible acquisition of a local bank but as you know, selling a bank is a very confidential and urgent process.”

As a matter of urgency, she wrote to Mr Ho advising him to write to Bank of Uganda’s Deputy Governor expressing interest in purchasing the bank before close of business that day (October 13th).

On the same day, an employee from the energy company wrote to Mr Kasekende and the letter was copied to Ms Kutesa.

It is unclear what went wrong afterwards but the Chinese Company was eventually unable to acquire Crane Bank.

Crane Bank was put under receivership on October 20th 2016 and later in 2017, it was sold to DFCU Bank.