Nause Tumuhimbise the Magistrate sitting at Mengo Chief Magistrate’s Court has placed city lawyer Gabriel Byamugisha on notice that she will issue an arrest warrant against Stella Nalutaaya and her daughter Janat Nantumbwe if they again fail to present them to court to take plea on criminal charges related to contempt of lawful court orders.
The notice resulted from Byamugisha’s submission to court confirming that he received the criminal summons against his client from private prosecutor Kassim Male Mabirizi and delivered them to them.
However, in the morning of Thursday 22nd January 2026, he received a phone call from Nalutaaya instructing him to inform court that she will not manage to attend the court proceedings with her daughter Nantumbwe because she was sick and her daughter was the one taking care of her.
Byamugisha pleaded with the magistrate not to issue the arresting warrant against the client noting that they are not serial criminal offenders and at the next sitting of court, he will produce the accused persons to court.
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However, Mabirizi’s lawyers led by Nasser Kibazo and Yasin Ssentumbwe Munnagomba of Escala Associated Advocates put up a spirited fight pleading with the presiding magistrate to issue the arrest warrants insisting that the respondent’s lawyer was telling lies.
He wondered why their lawyer was not presenting evidence like medical forms to prove his allegations.
“Your worship, the respondent and their lawyer are trying to defeat justice, they were properly served and have been in the know of today’s date to appear in court. There is no evidence to prove what my learned senior friend is trying to convince court. I pray the arrest warrants be issued, the accused persons be arrested and produced in this court, then court will guide the way forward,” Ssentumbwe submitted.
The magistrate however ruled that on 19th February 2026, Byamugisha should present his clients to take plea or else he will issue the warrant of arrest if they fail.
In a related development, Micheal Bbosa a magistrate at Mengo Chief Magistrates Court also set 26th February 2026 to hear and determine the contempt of court application filed by Mabirizi against his family members Sarah Mutumba, Faisal Mutumba, Stella Nalutaaya and Sophie Nassozi Mutumba.
The magistrate first dismissed the respondent’s application of staying the proceedings against them claiming that the matter was stayed by Justice John Katirima of the Family Division of the High Court.
However, Kibazo told court that Byamugisha was misleading the magistrate challenging him to produce the said order noting that the contempt of court application is not as a result of the appeal he filed in the High Court challenging the decision of the magistrate’s court which allowed his client to access his father’s multibillion estate as a beneficiary.
The magistrate agreed with Mabirizi’s lawyers from two city law firms Kibazo Associates and Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and directed Byamugisha to defend the actions of his clients who violated the court order by physically insulting Mabirizi and his assistants who were executing the said orders by denying him access to his father’s estate.
Mabirizi is battling with his family members led by city pastor Solomon Moses Male over the estate of their father Muhammad Bazinduse Lulibedda Mutumba who died during the 2019 Covid-19 lockdown.
Justice David Matovu of the High Court directed all the children of the deceased to be subjected to DNA test to establish whether they are biological children of the late Mutumba.
However, pastor Male and other family members protested the decision insisting that they cannot subject themselves to DNA with a stranger like Mabirizi noting that he is not a son of their father.
Mabirizi on the other hand accused pastor Male of influencing other family members to turn against him because of the personal grudge he held with his late mother Masitulla Mutumba because they were in the same age bracket.
He added that for a longtime, pastor Male and other family members have been challenging Court orders to subject them to a scientific examination through DNA because their main agenda was to sideline him and make sure that he doesn’t benefit from his father’s multibillion Estate.
Late Mutumba left behind a juicy Estate with huge chunk of land in different parts of the country including apartments and rentals in areas of Lubaga Division, Nakawa and Central Division.
Mabirizi alleged that even before securing the letters of administration to manage the deceased’s estate, the accused persons had already started collecting money from the Estate.
Mabirizi claimed that pastor Male masterminded the forging of their father’s will and he is using this forged will to challenge his legitimacy as a son to the deceased to achieve his personal grudge he has against him.
However, the accused persons through their family lawyer Byamugisha denied all the allegations insisting that the deceased’s will was brought to the attention of family members and friends by a widow who informed them that the deceased is the one who asked him to keep it and produce it after his death.
Byamugisha who was already dragged to law council by Mabirizi over unprofessional law practice added that the said will which Mabirizi is challenging was read openly before the members of the family and friends and his name was nowhere to be mentioned when the deceased was declaring the children he left behind.
He advised Mabirizi that instead of wasting his time in Court making his client waste their money, they should look for his family and settle the matter so that life moves on.
