Court has dismissed with costs a case in which Kampala dentist, Dr Ntwatwa Lule was challenging a settlement regarding tenancy on a kibanja at Katanga near Wandegeya a Kampala suburb.
The Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Kanyanya, Kawempe Division before Chief Magistrate Doreen Ainembabazi ruled that Dr Ntwatwa failed to convince court to review the consent and quash the consent judgement between Pastor Daniel Walugembe and businessman Kenneth Lumumba.
Chief Magistrate Ainembabazi ruled that the facts in the consent judgement do not disclose collusion against any interest of Dr Ntwatwa who is capable of vitiating a consent judgement.
“I find that no evidence to the allegation of 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.
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According to the court, the consent judgement has not shown to be vitiated in any way to warrant interference through review or otherwise.
Ms. Ainembabazi ruled that Dr. Ntwatwa did not satisfy court that the consent judgement is capable of being vitiated on grounds of illegality, contravention of the court policy and collusion.
The court decision followed an application in which Dr Ntwatwa had sought to quash the consent judgement that was entered into by Walugembe and Lumumba saying it erodes his lawful interest and land lordship in the Kibanja at Kimwanyi – Wandegeya measuring 75 decimals.
Dr Ntwatwa vainly claimed that he is the bonafide 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 same have since been determined by the High Court and in favour of the pastor.
“A party believing that the other had 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 the orders thereof,” she ruled.
According to the court, the consent judgment was premised on breach of tenancy agreement between Walugembe and Lumumba and for recovery of Shs48m as rent arrears for 24 months and not land or the extent of any party’s land coverage Ntwatwa seemed to suggest.
“The consent judgment between the parties did not disclose conduct that amounted 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. The same did not even make mention of the applicant (Ntwatwa) herein or in any way deal with his interests but in it, the second respondent (Lumumba) undertook to pay Shs48m to the first respondent and to pay rental dues timely failure of which he would be evicted,” reads the court decision.
The development comes at a time when Buganda Road magistrate Winnie Jatiko Nankya placed Dr Ntwatwa on defence after State proved that he had a case to answer on charges of accusations of forgery and uttering false documents regarding ownership of 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 Round About Haji Kasule Road by 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, Dr. Ntwatwa knowingly and fraudulently uttered false documents to wit Busuulu receipts (Ground rent receipts) to the Police officer purporting to have been issued to him by the family of Ashe Sendawula Mukasa.
Lumumba has since petitioned the court seeking for review of the orders directing him to pay Dr Ntwatwa rent fees saying new evidence shows that Dr Ntwatwa fraudulently misled him to sign a tenancy agreement with him on the kibanja which is not his.
He stated that even though Dr Ntwatwa is known in the area where he operates his motor garage, the said kibanja is owned by pastor Daniel Walugembe.
Records show that in 2015, the High Court declared four family members; Jonathan Masembe, Bulasio Buyise, G. Kagimu and Samalie Nambogga as bonafide occupants on Katanga land where Makerere University is the registered proprietor of the same.
In 2017, court decreed that the Kibanja in dispute belonged to Walugembe.
In 2019, court dismissed with costs a case in which Dr Ntwatwa and 99 others had sought to challenge Walugembe’s interest in the said Kibanja which was never appealed.
Walugembe stated that he owns 28 acres claiming that he bought 15 acres from the family members and that he also owns additional 13.75 acres of Kibanja sold to him by their licensees.
