The court has dismissed, with costs, a case in which Kampala dentist Dr Ntwatwa Lule was challenging a settlement regarding tenancy on a kibanja in Katanga near Wandegeya.
The Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Kanyanya in Kawempe Division, before Chief Magistrate Doreen Ainembabazi, ruled that Dr Ntwatwa failed to convince the court to review and quash the consent judgment between Pastor Daniel Walugembe and businessman Kenneth Lumumba.
Chief Magistrate Ainembabazi ruled that the facts in the consent judgment did not disclose any collusion against the interests of Dr Ntwatwa that would justify vitiating the judgment.
“I find that no evidence of the alleged fraud or collusion was proved with regard to the first respondent (Walugembe) and the second respondent (Lumumba) at the time of execution of the consent,” the court held.
According to the court, the consent judgment has not been shown to be vitiated in any way that would warrant interference through review or otherwise.
Ms Ainembabazi ruled that Dr Ntwatwa did not satisfy the court that the consent judgment was capable of being vitiated on grounds of illegality, contravention of court policy, or collusion.
The court’s decision followed an application in which Dr Ntwatwa sought to quash the consent judgment entered into by Walugembe and Lumumba, arguing that it eroded his lawful interest and landlordship over the kibanja at Kimwanyi–Wandegeya measuring 75 decimals.
Dr Ntwatwa claimed that he is the bona fide occupant of one acre of the land, part of which he rented out to Lumumba to operate a garage.
Chief Magistrate Ainembabazi reasoned that her court lacked the pecuniary jurisdiction to determine the overriding land rights between Ntwatwa and Walugembe because the matter had already been determined by the High Court in favour of the pastor.
“A party believing that another has acted in contempt of the decision of the High Court is at liberty to move the High Court to find the violating party in contempt of its orders,” she ruled.
According to the court, the consent judgment was premised on a breach of tenancy agreement between Walugembe and Lumumba and on the recovery of Shs48 million in rent arrears for 24 months, rather than on land ownership or the extent of any party’s land rights, as Ntwatwa appeared to suggest.
“The consent judgment between the parties did not disclose conduct amounting to an agreement or understanding between the parties to obtain an object forbidden by law or the employment of lawful means for the accomplishment of an unlawful purpose. It did not even mention the applicant (Ntwatwa) or in any way deal with his interests. Instead, the second respondent (Lumumba) undertook to pay Shs48 million to the first respondent and to pay rental dues on time, failure of which he would be evicted,” reads part of the court decision.
The development comes at a time when Buganda Road Magistrate Winnie Jatiko Nankya placed Dr Ntwatwa on his defence after the State proved that he has a case to answer on charges of forgery and uttering false documents regarding ownership of a kibanja in Katanga near Wandegeya.
The State alleges that between 2019 and 2020 in Kampala, the three suspects conspired to defraud Walugembe of his kibanja opposite GAL at Mulago Roundabout on Haji Kasule Road by falsely claiming to have bought it from Bulasio Bwisi in the early 1990s.
According to the charge sheet, on September 17, 2020, at Wandegeya Police Station in Kawempe Division, the suspects knowingly and fraudulently uttered false documents, namely busuulu receipts (ground rent receipts), to a police officer, purporting that they had been issued by the family of Ashe Sendawula Mukasa.
Lumumba has since petitioned the court seeking a review of the orders directing him to pay rent fees to Dr Ntwatwa, arguing that new evidence shows Dr Ntwatwa fraudulently misled him into signing a tenancy agreement over a kibanja that does not belong to him.
He stated that Dr Ntwatwa is known in the area where he operates his motor garage, despite the fact that the kibanja is allegedly owned by Pastor Daniel Walugembe.
Court records show that in 2015, the High Court declared four family members — Jonathan Masembe, Bulasio Buyise, G. Kagimu, and Samalie Nambogga — as bona fide occupants of the Katanga land, while Makerere University remained the registered proprietor.
In 2017, the court decreed that the kibanja in dispute belongs to Walugembe.
In 2019, the court dismissed, with costs, a case in which Dr Ntwatwa and 99 others sought to challenge Walugembe’s interest in the kibanja. The decision was never appealed.
Walugembe states that he owns 28 acres, claiming that he bought 15 acres from the family members and acquired an additional 13.75 acres of kibanja from their licensees.
