Pemba fires back on why he didn’t pay debt

Socialite Jack Pemba has come out to address his issues with businessman Godfrey Kirumira whom he owed $200,000 (about Shs720m) and he says it has nothing to do with not having money to pay him.

Court last week issued an arrest warrant for the self styled moneybags Jack Pemba after Kirumira demanded that he pays back $300,000 (about Shs1 billion).

Pemba admits that he borrowed $200,000 from Kirumira and gave him his three prized cars jointly valued at over Shs1.2 billion as security.

The cars included a Range Rover with customized license plates ONLY 1 JP, which Pemba says was valued at $140,000 (about Shs513m), a brand new 2017 Landcruiser ZX 2017 model on which Pemba had spent $175,000 (about Shs642m) and a Hummer H3 valued at $35,000 (about Shs128m).

Pemba says the cars were supposed to be parked in safe custody but Kirumira unfortunately drove his cars and also gave them to his children to drive.

“They depreciated in value, and that really annoyed me,” Pemba said.

It’s on record as tabloid reported late last year that Kirumira was seen driving Pemba’s “ONLY 1 JP” Range Rover to the Pearl of Africa Hotel. When Pemba read the news, he was very cross because Kirumira hadn’t stuck to the agreement.

Apparently, he signed a sale agreement meaning that Kirumira had the liberty to sell the cars in case Pemba didn’t pay up.

Pemba says because Kirumira had driven the cars and their value depreciated, he had made up his mind to sell them and repay Kirumira, something that Kirumira refused.

Sources also told us that Kirumira became very angry after he realized that Pemba had bought a brand new Lexus valued at over Shs620m and he flew in Congolese star Koffi Olomidde to perform at his wife Sheebah Kassami’s birthday party at the Sheraton Hotel where he blew more than Shs100m.

A cross Kirumira run to court to compel Pemba to repay him, but Pemba wonders why his cars that were supposed to be kept as security were driven.

Pemba adds that Kirumira also rented out the cars to weddings and crashed the Landcruiser.

Since the agreement between Pemba and Kirumira was a sales agreement, Pemba says the option Kirumira had was to sell the cars instead of running to court.