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The executor of the estate of the late Bulaimu Muwanga Kibirige, who was popularly known as BMK, is scheduled to start his defence in a sh10 billion property case on June 12, 2024.

Justice Stephen Mubiru of the Commercial Court set the date on Thursday after Yako Bank Uganda Limited officials finished giving their testimonies in the matter.

Ali Muwanga Kibirige, the executor of the estate of the late BMK, is fighting to ensure that the bank does not sell the property of the late over a sh10 billion debt.

Recently, court blocked the sale of the property comprising block 273 plot 46 Mulambula Road, Buziga in Makindye division, Kampala district. The bank had obtained a warrant of attachment and sale of the property.

The assistant registrar, Rashida Butanula, has since issued an order restraining one of the sons of the late BMK, Haruna Kalule Muwanga, and the Commissioner Land Registration from carrying out any activity on the land.

“An interim order doth issue maintaining the status quo and restraining respondents and their agents from carrying out any activity on the land, entering thereupon, leasing, evicting or changing/transferring the ownership of the land until May 4, 2023, unless court orders otherwise,” Butanula earlier ordered.

In his affidavit, Ali Muwanga contends that the respondents fraudulently and without any colour of right transferred the land from the name of the deceased to Kalule.

BMK passed away on September 10, 2021 at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, after battling cancer for long. After his demise, Muwanga was granted letters of probate to manage his estate.

“The respondents are in the process of dealing with the property in a way that will alienate and put it out of my reach. The status quo will be tilted if the respondents are not restrained from dealing with the property,” he argued prior to the ruling.

The court heard that last year on February 14, the Commissioner Land Registration had issued a second notice of intention to effect changes in the register.

Muwanga contends that during a public hearing at the land’s ministry on March 9, 2023, his lawyer Kirumira caused the examination of the signature of the late BMK on the transfer form used by Kalule and found that the signature was forged.

He, therefore, seeks a declaration that the property is part and parcel of the estate of the late BMK.

Muwanga also seeks a declaration that the transfer of the land from the name of the late BMK to Kalule on March 7, 2022, was illegal and fraudulent.

Another case

The development comes at a time when Muwanga is also seeking to stop Equity Bank Uganda Limited from selling a sh2b billion matrimonial property located on plot 15 Upper Naguru in Kampala.

In the case before the Commercial Court in Kampala, he is suing his siblings, Haruna Kalule Muwanga, Shadia Nabunya Muwanga, and Sophia Bayiga Muwanga (BMK’s wife). The Commissioner Land Registration is also a respondent in the matter.

Muwanga accused his siblings of mortgaging the property with the bank without his knowledge.

However, the court is yet to deliver a ruling on the matter.