Muwema sues former landlord over “illegal” eviction, seeks Shs 15 billion

Fred Muwema, the managing partner of Muwema & Company Advocates

Prominent law firm Muwema & Co Advocates has dragged its former landlord, Downtown Investments, and seven others to the High Court, demanding at least Shs 15 billion in compensation after what it calls a violent and illegal eviction from its Kololo offices in March.

Here is the breakdown of the Shs 15 billion. The law firm wants Shs 762 million to cover the cost of relocating and setting up new offices, Shs 960 million, which it says went missing from office safes during the eviction, and Shs 11 billion as compensation for lost business.

On top of that, Muwema has asked for general, punitive and aggravated damages, plus interest of 20% a year on all the money awarded, running from 6 March 2026 until it is paid in full.

In the 100-page suit, filed on July 7, 2026, through KSMO Advocates, the law firm sued Downtown Investments, its director Paresh Kumar Ratilal Mehta, lawyers Roger Mugabi and Rukia Adam, and enforcers Ahmed Bongo and Fredrick Byatukoreire, the security firm A1 Security Systems Limited, and the Attorney General.

In 2014, Muwema & Co signed a lease agreement with Downtown Investments to rent offices at Plot 50, Windsor Crescent in Kololo.

The agreement, which ran alongside an option for the law firm to eventually buy the property, later became the subject of a separate court case, in which Downtown Investments accused the law firm of failing to pay rent on time.

On February 20 2026, the High Court ruled in favour of Downtown Investments, ordering Muwema & Co to pay rent arrears, hand back vacant possession of the offices, and pay damages.

Muwema & Co says it was unhappy with that decision and appealed. However, worried that the landlord was about to move against it, the law firm filed an application in court on March 3, 2026, seeking to stop execution of the judgment while its appeal was pending.

That is where things turned dramatic. According to the suit, just three days later, on March 6, 2026, at around 8:00 am, Downtown Investments, with the aid of security personnel and Bongo, surprisingly raided Muwema’s offices, where they supervised and evicted the firm.

In the suit, Muwema & Co says they ransacked the offices, throwing out furniture, computers, printers, air conditioning units, safes, land titles and client files onto waiting trucks, without ever drawing up a proper inventory of what was taken.

The firm says the eviction was filmed and published by the media, which it claims was done deliberately to embarrass and damage its reputation.

Crucially, the law firm argues that the whole operation was based on a lie because Downtown Investments and its allies described what happened as a “re-entry” onto the property, not as an execution of the court’s judgment.

But Muwema & Co insists that a re-entry was not legally available to Downtown Investments once it had already gone to court and won a judgment ordering eviction through the proper channel.

The suit accuses Downtown and others of “deceitfully claiming that the illegal eviction was conducted under a re-entry, whereas it was not legally available” and says this amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation.

The firm also argues that even if a re-entry had been available, it was carried out unlawfully, without the 90 days’ notice or the eviction warrant required under the Land Evictions (Practice) Directions of 2021.

Beyond the property damage, Muwema & Co claims the eviction shut down its operations for about two months, causing it to miss court dates and client meetings, and that some of its clients’ confidential files remain missing or destroyed to this day.

The Uganda Law Society (ULS) weighed in publicly, condemning the eviction and calling on Downtown Investments and the police to reverse their actions.

Downtown Investments and others are yet to file their defence, and the case has not yet been fixed for hearing. But Muwema has fired the warning shot.