The High Court’s Land Division has ordered the arrest and detention of lawyer Mugoya Kyawa Gaster in civil prison over his failure to settle a debt of nearly Shs1.49 billion owed to Bank of Africa.
In a ruling delivered on June 25, 2026, Justice P. Basaza-Wasswa directed the Assistant Registrar to issue a renewed warrant of arrest against Mugoya to facilitate recovery of the outstanding decretal sum arising from a consent judgment entered in 2013.
The decision stemmed from a reference made by Assistant Registrar Samuel Kagoda Ntende under Order 50 Rule 7 of the Civil Procedure Rules after questions emerged over whether execution proceedings in the Land Division could continue while bankruptcy proceedings involving the same parties had earlier been initiated in the Commercial Division.
The dispute dates back to 2013 when Mugoya sued Bank of Africa seeking a permanent injunction to stop the bank from selling his mortgaged property located on Kyadondo Block 185 Plot 5912 in Namugongo, Wakiso District.
The parties later settled the case through a consent judgment signed on September 6, 2013, under which Mugoya agreed to clear his outstanding loan obligations within an agreed period and also pay the costs of the suit.
Bank of Africa subsequently returned to court through Execution Miscellaneous Application No. 276 of 2024 seeking to enforce the consent decree by renewing a warrant of arrest and committing Mugoya to civil prison. The bank says the amount due has since risen to Shs1,489,114,477.
Mugoya opposed the application, arguing that the same consent judgment was already being pursued through Bankruptcy Petition No. 10 of 2017 before the Commercial Division and that he could not legally be subjected to two parallel execution processes over the same debt.
However, the bank maintained that the consent judgment originated from a case filed in the Land Division and had no connection with the bankruptcy proceedings.
To resolve the matter, Justice Basaza-Wasswa called for the record of Bankruptcy Petition No. 10 of 2017 and found that although the petition had been filed, it was never actively pursued to conclusion.
Court records showed that in April 2018, the parties informed the Commercial Division that they had reached a settlement under which Mugoya would pay the bank three instalments of Shs100 million, Shs160 million and another Shs160 million between May and October 2018.
The judge observed that no bankruptcy order, stay of execution, or any other formal court order was ever issued and that the proceedings were effectively abandoned after the parties reached an out-of-court arrangement.
“Given the purpose of bankruptcy law, and the fact that the proceedings in Bankruptcy Petition No. 10 of 2017 were not pursued and no formal court orders were ever made, it is my conclusion that the abandoned proceedings have no effect on the proceedings in EMA No. 276 of 2024,” Justice Basaza-Wasswa ruled.
She concluded that there was no legal impediment preventing Bank of Africa from pursuing execution through the Land Division and held that execution should proceed against Mugoya through arrest and detention in civil prison.
The Assistant Registrar was consequently directed to issue a renewed warrant of arrest and detention against Mugoya, while the lawyer was also ordered to pay the costs of both the reference and Execution Miscellaneous Application No. 276 of 2024.
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