Court bailiffs on Friday,6, forcibly evicted city lawyer Fred Muwema and his law firm, Muwema & Co Advocates, from a prime property owned by Downtown Investments Ltd in Kololo, enforcing a court order that declared the firm illegal tenants on the premises.
The eviction was carried out at the firm’s offices on Windsor Crescent Road in Kololo, an upscale suburb of Kampala, where court enforcement officers and Uganda Police supervised the removal of office property from the building as the landlord repossessed the premises.
The development follows a ruling by the High Court of Uganda ordering the law firm and its partners to vacate the property after failing to comply with the terms of a commercial lease agreement and remaining in occupation despite accumulating substantial rent arrears.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Patricia Mutesi, the court found that the defendants had breached the tenancy agreement and continued occupying the premises without legal justification.
“The evidence adduced by the plaintiff proved that the defendant has held onto the leased premises while committing several breaches of the lease agreement,” the judge ruled.
Court records show that the dispute began from a commercial lease agreement signed in December 2014 under which Muwema & Co Advocates occupied the Kololo property at a monthly rent of about USD 5,000 plus VAT, subject to periodic increments.
However, relations between the landlord and the tenants later deteriorated after the law firm allegedly accumulated significant rent arrears and remained on the premises even after the lease expired.
The court consequently ordered the firm and its partners to pay $372,300 (approximately Shs1.3–1.4 billion) in outstanding rent and mesne profits. The court also awarded Shs50 million in general damages to the landlord for losses suffered as a result of the prolonged occupation of the property.
Justice Mutesi dismissed the defendants’ argument that they had exercised an option to purchase the property, ruling that no binding sale agreement had been concluded between the parties.
“It is simply false and misleading to insinuate that anything became of their offer when it was not accepted,” the judge held.
The judge emphasized that an unaccepted purchase offer does not cancel a tenant’s obligation to continue paying rent.
The court further directed the defendants to hand over vacant possession of the premises to Downtown Investments Ltd and allowed the landlord to enforce eviction through court bailiffs should the tenants fail to vacate voluntarily.
Friday’s eviction, therefore, is the final enforcement of the court order, effectively ending the law firm’s more than decade-long occupation of the Kololo property and restoring possession to the registered owner.
