Rivonia Suites founder Deux Tibingana files for divorce amid bitter hotel ownership dispute

• Tibingana says he invested more than Shs800 million in building Rivonia Suites.

• He accuses his estranged wife of taking control of the hotel’s accounts and denying him access to its income.

• He says counselling and family mediation failed before he decided to seek a divorce.

• His allegations remain unverified, while his estranged wife has not publicly responded.

Ugandan lawyer and businessman Deux Tibingana has filed for divorce after accusing his estranged wife of excluding him from Rivonia Suites, a hotel business he says he founded and financed.

Tibingana announced the decision in a statement released on his 49th birthday. He said he chose to speak before details of the court case reached the public through a third party.

“I am sharing this openly today because a third-party leak of a dissolution of marriage that has been filed in court is inevitable… I won’t allow that. Not this time round,” he said.

He described the day as his “third anniversary of pure survival and the permanent closure of a 28-year chapter”.

“I am starting a new life,” he added.

Tibingana said he invested more than Shs800 million in establishing Rivonia Suites. He also claimed that income from his law firm kept the hotel operating during years of losses.

He placed his wife in charge of daily operations in 2013 and handed her full control in 2018.

“I single-handedly built the primary business enterprise, RIVONIA SUITES, sank over 800M of my own money into it, and took on heavy lines of credit to complete it,” he said.

Tibingana said he transferred the business registration into his wife’s name in April 2019 to ease administration.

He alleged that she later opened new bank accounts without his knowledge and removed him from the hotel’s revenue system.

“She secretly used the transfer to open completely new bank accounts where my signature was no longer required, systematically cutting me out of the revenue stream,” he said.

Tibingana claimed he has not received financial records from the hotel since 2018. He also alleged that management stopped him from entering the premises.

“Since 2018, I have never seen a single line of accountability… I have absolutely no idea where those massive funds have been going,” he said.

He also claimed that he financed his wife’s Axis Salon business in Kitintale. He said he learnt through rumours that the salon had been sold in 2024.

According to Tibingana, the marriage collapsed in late 2023 when the family left a temporary rented home as he completed a new house.

“She took everything we owned… The four days passed… then she said she needed time. It soon dawned on me that this person was in no hurry to come,” he said.

Tibingana said counselling and mediation by relatives failed to repair the marriage. He claimed a counsellor later told him that his wife had left the relationship emotionally years earlier and only remained interested in Rivonia Suites.

He admitted making mistakes while facing financial problems but denied that they justified his alleged exclusion from the business.

“I am no saint… I have made mistakes, broken trust and let people down. But there is a vast difference between an entrepreneur collapsing under economic stress and a systematic, hidden lockout by a person whom I trusted with all operations,” he said.

Tibingana also alleged that his family excluded him from major decisions. These included his eldest son’s graduation from Makerere University and another son’s departure for studies abroad.

He said he struggled to meet his needs after the separation, despite having built the hotel.

“The business serves lunch every day… If I wanted, I had to buy. To this day I am like any other customer,” he said.

Tibingana said he proposed an equal division of the hotel’s profits. He estimated that Rivonia Suites earns more than $20,000 a month.

“The business I built makes more than twenty thousand dollars a month; why shouldn’t I push for us to share?” he said.

He said relatives rejected the proposal during family meetings. The response convinced him to take the dispute to court.

“I resolved after that meeting that I was dealing with some aliens… I communicated that I would file for divorce and settle the issues through court,” he said.

Tibingana also reflected on his journey from selling pineapples and roses while studying law at Makerere University.

He said he later worked as a butcher, forklift operator and delivery truck driver in the United Kingdom to raise money for his businesses.

“The guy who started with nothing and wasn’t afraid to sell pineapples at campus… was a butcher in the UK, a forklift operator and a truck delivery driver,” he said.

He thanked friends, relatives and creditors who supported him during his financial difficulties.

“I stand here today because of the unwavering brotherhood” of those who supported him, he said.

The divorce petition was not publicly available by the time of publication. The Observer could not independently verify Tibingana’s allegations.

His estranged wife had also not publicly responded to the claims.

The Family Division of the High Court is expected to handle the dissolution of the marriage and any dispute over matrimonial property.