Chinese Court blocks Aya Hotel over Hi-Tech Cables

In 2015, the Sudanese Aya brothers received Hi-Tech Cables from China for connecting their prized Hilton Hotel in the high-end Nakasero area.

Maersk’s transporters and logistics shipped the equipments from China to Uganda.

To the Aya siblings, time was of high necessity given that the contractors had given them tight deadlines within which to import the cables or else suffer punitive penalties in the event of  delayed delivery of the required cables.

As the transporters worked on the process of handing over the cables to the client, a judge in China sent in an order recalling the goods on the suspicion they had been unlawfully obtained.

Maersk’s transporters fearing for the worst in the event of handing over the suspected stolen cables, held onto the goods as they worked on the process of returning them to China.

The Aya were  in the meantime sweating plasma remembering that they were caught up by time. They wrote to Maersk to hand over the goods, but the transporter flatly declined.

The presently financially challenged investors wrote to the highest offices in the land, but their godfathers couldn’t help out, fearing to bite the generous hand of the wealthy Chinese government.

After the push had come to shove, the frightened Aya resorted to the commercial section of the high court, praying for an order stopping Maersk from returning the cables to China.

Maersk put their feet down, telling justice Christopher Madrama how they couldn’t hand over the suspected stolen cables because doing so would make them pay dearly after the owner stepped up and for disobeying a court order.

Madrama escalated the Aya’s high blood pressure when he hesitated to grant the order sought by the investors because they were using a photocopy of the original bill of landing as proof they had imported the cables.

The judge further reasoned that since the entity or person claiming the goods wasn’t a party to the court proceedings, it was risky to tell the transporters who had, moreover, received an order to return the goods to China, to again turn them over to the Aya.

But, the judge noted that since the Aya wanted to use the cables and was caught up by time and were in possession of documents indicating they were the importer, it was prudent to release the goods to them.

All the same, the judge tasked the Aya to write an undertaking pleading to cover the transporters in the event anyone came up later and claimed the cables later.

Accordingly, Maersk handed over the cables calming the nerves of the Ayas. However, the Chinese are grumbling.