The High Court Commercial Division has ordered Syndicate Freight & Logistics Ltd to pay logistics technology company Kobo360 Inc. US$139,875 (about UGX 510 million) after finding that the company breached a cargo transportation contract by failing to pay for haulage services rendered between Mombasa and Kampala.
In a judgment delivered on July 24, 2026, Justice Stephen Mubiru ruled that Kobo360 had successfully proved that it entered into a valid transportation agreement with Syndicate Freight & Logistics Ltd in May 2020 and fully performed its contractual obligations, while the freight company failed to settle the outstanding invoices.
The dispute arose after Kobo360, a logistics and supply chain platform that connects cargo owners, truck owners and transporters, entered into a 12-month cargo transportation agreement with Syndicate Freight & Logistics Ltd on May 25, 2020. Under the agreement, Kobo360 was to provide haulage services for the company’s cargo from Mombasa to Kampala, with payment due within 30 days of invoicing.
Court heard that Kobo360 transported goods on several occasions and later invoiced the freight company a total of US$139,875, but the invoices remained unpaid despite repeated demands.
Justice Mubiru found that documentary evidence, including the signed transportation agreement, statements of account, invoices and email correspondence, established both the existence of the contract and the outstanding debt. The judge noted that the defendants did not produce evidence to challenge the claim or prove that payment had been made.
One of the key pieces of evidence was an email dated October 9, 2021, in which the company’s director, Prakash Kudiye, acknowledged the debt and promised to pay US$1,000 per week beginning in November 2021 before increasing the weekly payments from December. The court described the email as an unequivocal acknowledgment that the debt remained outstanding.
However, the court declined to hold Kudiye personally liable for the company’s debt.
Kobo360 had argued that Kudiye’s representations and subsequent conduct justified lifting the corporate veil and making him jointly liable with the company. The judge rejected that argument, holding that although Kudiye had communicated directly with the plaintiff, he did so in his capacity as a company director rather than as a personal guarantor.
Justice Mubiru emphasized that a company’s separate legal personality can only be disregarded in exceptional circumstances where it is used to evade legal obligations or conceal fraud.
“The corporate veil can only be pierced where a company is used to evade existing legal obligations or conceal wrongdoing,” the judge held, adding that evasive behaviour or improper conduct by a director alone is insufficient to impose personal liability.
The court further ruled that Kobo360 was entitled to recover the outstanding contractual sum because the amount was readily ascertainable from the contract, invoices and account statements, and the defendants had failed to prove payment.
Justice Mubiru awarded Kobo360 interest at 8 percent per annum from October 17, 2022, the date the suit was filed, until full payment. He declined to award general damages, reasoning that the interest sufficiently compensated the company for being deprived of the use of its money over the years.
The court also ordered Syndicate Freight & Logistics Ltd to bear the costs of the suit.
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