By Mukembo Wilfred
Kampala lawyers are under scrutiny over allegations that they forged sales agreements relating to Kibanja interests in Katanga Valley, near Wandegeya in Kampala District.
The lawyers from SK Partners Advocates, who represent Dr Lule Ntwatwa, allegedly presented two different sets of sales agreements in a letter dated July 21, 2023, which was forwarded to court.
Dr Ntwatwa is facing charges of forgery and uttering false documents in connection with the ownership of land in Katanga, near Wandegeya, before the Buganda Road Magistrates Court.
Documents before court show that the development prompted M/s Alma Associated Advocates, who represent Pastor Daniel Walugembe, to present another set of agreements on July 26, 2023, seeking to clarify which documents were genuine.
The court has since questioned the origin of the sales agreements presented by SK Partners Advocates, saying they do not appear on the court record.
In a letter dated August 13, 2026, Deputy Registrar Ronald Kayizzi said that, upon perusing the court files, he found one set of sales agreements introduced by a letter dated December 7, 2017, which was received by the court on January 10, 2018.
Kayizzi said the agreements were written by Bulasio Buyise, Jonathan Massembe, Ssendawula Ronald, Sendawula Isiah and Latimer Mpagi, adding that there was no other set of agreements on the court record.
According to the court document, the authentic sales agreements are those executed between Walugembe and his predecessors in February and August 1996.
“I am unable to know how the agreements attached to the letter written by SK Partners were certified and obtained from court given that certified copies of sales agreements on record were not part of the documents given to H&G Advocates by Her Worship Janeva Natukunda in her letter dated February 9, 2022, reference No. DR/02/22,” Kayizzi wrote to M/s Fitz Patrick Furah and Co. Advocates.
The Deputy Registrar was responding to a request by Patrick Furah & Co. Advocates to peruse the court files and clarify which of the two sets of sales agreements was genuine and which was false.
In a December 2017 letter to the Deputy Registrar of the High Court Land Division, Buyise, Massembe, Ssendawula, Sendawula and Mpagi, describing themselves as plaintiffs in Civil Case No. 857 of 2000, said they had sold their Kibanja interests in Kimwanyi and Busia zones in Katanga Valley to Pastor Walugembe.
The sale followed a 2015 High Court judgment which ruled that the Katanga Valley land was occupied by family members and their licensees, who were bona fide occupants whose rights were protected under the laws governing land ownership.
In 2024, a private prosecutor lodged a complaint against SK Partners Advocates, Robert Senfuka and Umar Nyanzi over alleged forgery of agreements relating to the sale of land, commonly referred to as Kibanja, in Katanga.
The complaint alleged that the lawyers, acting through SK Partners Advocates on behalf of Dr Ntwatwa Lule on July 21, 2023, knowingly and unlawfully altered sales agreements dated February 9, 1996, and August 13, 1996.
Court documents indicate that the accused lawyers allegedly altered Walugembe’s agreements of February 9 and August 13, 1996, to include his telephone number and that of his lawyer, as well as a reference to the Land Act, Cap 227.
The complaint alleges that the reference to the Land Act was an alteration because the law cited did not exist in its current form at the time the agreements were executed in 1996.
It further alleges that the genuine sales agreements bore certificates of translation, while the documents alleged to have been forged did not.
Walugembe has contended that the disputed agreements originated from Dr Ntwatwa and that their alleged use amounted to conspiracy to commit a felony. He further alleges that the documents were uttered before the Magistrates Court at the Law Development Centre on July 10, 2023, while he was being cross-examined.
The allegations remain subject to determination by court.
