City lawyer Fred Muwema and his firm, Muwema & Co. Advocates, have rejected an eviction from their Kololo offices, describing the operation as illegal and intended to frustrate their pending appeal in a High Court rent dispute.
On Friday morning, court bailiffs enforced a High Court order to remove Muwema and his team from their offices on Plot 50 Windsor Crescent Road over a Shs1.4 billion rent dispute with Downtown Investments Ltd.
In a press release later that day, the law firm said officers from the company, accompanied by police and unidentified individuals, carried out the eviction forcibly.
The firm insists the eviction was unlawful, arguing that the landlord acted outside legally mandated procedures.
“This was an illegal eviction disguised as a re-entry, a remedy which was no longer available to Downtown after it submitted the dispute with us to the Courts of law,” the statement said.
Muwema & Co. further claims the action amounted to an irregular execution of the High Court judgment in HCCS No. 621 of 2023: Downtown Investments Ltd vs M/s Muwema & Co. Advocates & 2 Others, which they have already appealed.
“Most importantly, this was an irregular execution by all accounts, of the recent judgment… which we have appealed,” the firm said.
According to the lawyers, key legal steps were ignored before the eviction. These include failure to commence an execution process, the absence of the 90-day notice of eviction required under the Constitution’s Land Evictions Practice Directions 2021, and no warrant of eviction issued by the court for police enforcement.
Muwema & Co. condemned the incident and accused the landlord of acting in concert with law enforcement.
“We condemn these wanton criminal acts committed by Downtown Investments Ltd with the support of the police and will do everything necessary to obtain the appropriate legal redress,” the firm said.
Despite the eviction, Muwema & Co. said its operations will continue remotely while arrangements are made for a new office.
“We are reachable on all our existing communication tools and shall advise our clients, partners, and the general public of our new physical office address in the coming days,” the statement added.
The dispute between the law firm and Downtown Investments Ltd has been ongoing for several years, and with this eviction, both sides appear poised to continue the matter in the appellate courts amid sharply differing accounts of the enforcement process.
