The court directed the Assistant Registrar to issue a renewed warrant of arrest and detention against Mugoya and ordered him to pay the costs of both the reference proceedings and the execution application.
The High Court of Uganda’s Land Division has ordered the issuance of a renewed warrant of arrest and detention in civil prison against Kampala lawyer Mugoya Kyawa Gaster over an outstanding decretal sum of sh1.49bn owed to Bank of Africa Uganda.
In a ruling delivered on June 25, 2026, Justice P. Basaza-Wasswa resolved a legal dispute that arose from execution proceedings in EMA No. 0276 of 2024, where the bank sought to enforce a consent judgment entered in HCCS No. 319 of 2013.
The court was asked to determine whether ongoing or previous bankruptcy proceedings filed against Mugoya in the Commercial Division barred the bank from pursuing execution through arrest and detention in the Land Division.
Bank of Africa argued that the bankruptcy case and the execution proceedings were separate matters and that the consent judgment remained enforceable. Mugoya, who represented himself, contended that he could not be subjected to two forms of execution arising from the same judgment in different divisions of the High Court.
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The dispute stems from a 2013 lawsuit in which Mugoya sought to stop the bank from selling his mortgaged property located on Kyadondo Block 185, Plot 5912 in Namugongo, Wakiso District. The matter was later settled through a consent judgment requiring him to clear his outstanding loan obligations and pay legal costs.
According to court records, Bank of Africa subsequently initiated execution proceedings to recover the outstanding debt, which it now values at UGX 1,489,114,477.
Justice Basaza-Wasswa reviewed the status of Bankruptcy Petition No. 10 of 2017, which had been cited by Mugoya as a bar to the execution process. The court found that although the bankruptcy petition had been filed, the proceedings were never formally pursued to completion.
The judge noted that the parties had reportedly reached a settlement arrangement in 2018, but no bankruptcy order, stay of execution, or any other substantive court order was ever issued. The court further observed that the procedural steps required under insolvency law were not undertaken.
As a result, the court concluded that the bankruptcy proceedings had effectively been abandoned and therefore had no legal effect on the execution proceedings before the Land Division.
“In the result, it is my ruling that execution should issue against Mr. Mugoya by way of a warrant of arrest and detention in civil prison for satisfaction of the outstanding decretal sum,” Justice Basaza-Wasswa ruled.
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The court directed the Assistant Registrar to issue a renewed warrant of arrest and detention against Mugoya and ordered him to pay the costs of both the reference proceedings and the execution application.
The ruling clears the way for Bank of Africa to continue efforts to recover the debt under the 2013 consent judgment, ending a key legal challenge that had delayed enforcement proceedings.
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