The case pits the state against powerful businesswoman and defence contractor, Molly Katanga and her co-accused ⏤ Kakwenza Patricia, Nkwanzi Martha Katanga, Otai Charles and Amanyire George.
The state accuses Molly Katanga of brutally murdering her husband- also a powerful businessman, the late Henry Katanga.
To defend her, the businesswoman has lined up not just two of Kampala’s top 10 law firms⏤ Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA) and Tumusiime, Kabega & Co. Advocates, but they have also gone for the crème de la crème defence lawyers in there.
For example, the lead defence team at KAA is composed of Peter Kabatsi, Elison Karuhanga, Bruce Musinguzi and Jet Tumwebaze.
At Tumusiime, Kabega & Co. Advocates, Molly Katanga has picked McDusman Kabega as one of the most pronounced if not the best criminal defence lawyers in Uganda.
On February 21st, 2024, the defence lawyers succeeded in securing bail for Molly Katanga’s co-accused. The court granted bail to the four in the case for tampering with the murder evidence. These include; Patricia Kakwanza, and Martha Nkwanzi Katanga both daughters of the late Katanga, Dr Charles Otai, and a domestic worker George Amanyire.
On the state’s side, the Director of Public Processions (DPP) has also lined up some of their best lawyers. The prosecuting team is led by Ms. Samalie Wakoli the Assistant DPP, assisted by Mr. Jonathan Muwaganya, the Chief State Attorney and Ms. Ann Kiiza – Chief State Attorney.
Since murder is a criminal case, only prosecutable by the state, representing the slain Henry Katanga’s relatives, but on a watching brief is Mwesigwa Rukutana & Co. Advocates led by Mwesigwa Rukutana, the Managing Partner. He is assisted by Rubihayo Brian and Ayebazibwe Edgar. Also on the watching brief is Kanduho Frank & Co. Advocates, led by the Managing Partner, Kanduho Frank.
A watching brief is a method normally used in criminal cases by lawyers to represent clients not directly a party to the suit and to function as an observer. It is the practice of representing persons who are not strictly parties to proceedings and its advantages. The method is normally used to help protect the rights and interests of victims of a crime- in this case, the late Henry Katanga.
Today, we dig a little further to explore the lawyers’ expertise and some of the top cases they have handled, and what value they bring to this matter.
Peter Kabatsi
Senior Partner
Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA)
Peter Kabatsi is currently a Senior Partner at Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA), one of the leading law firms in Uganda, where he jointly heads the litigation department. He has had a long career in the legal profession and has served in various legal positions both locally and internationally.
Locally, he has served as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Solicitor General between 1990 and 2002.
He has and continues to successfully represent several local and international clients in a variety of sectors, including oil and gas, telecommunications as well as public bodies, and government agencies.
As Solicitor General, he was also the legal advisor and representative of the government in all matters at a national and international level; he worked as the principal legal officer for the Government and all its bodies and organisations. He also handled all civil matters brought to the government and gave legal opinions on all government contracts. He too, led many Ugandan delegations in bilateral and multilateral negotiations including country negotiations with the IMF, the World Bank as well as other International Organisations and Arbitrations.
He has participated in all the last four presidential election petitions.
He is also on the list of counsel eligible to practice before the International Criminal Court (ICC). This list was created to ensure that persons implicated in proceedings before the court benefit from effective legal representation. Additionally, he is an attorney and notary in the kingdom of Lesotho where he also served as principal crown counsel.
Kabatsi is a lawyer for high-profile officials like the former Inspector of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura before the military and the Ruparelia Group’s billionaire founder, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia.
Peter has practised law internationally as well, holding several leadership positions on global bodies such as the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC)- the body of experts that is mandated with codifying and developing international law, where he served in various capacities, including President, Vice President and Rapporteur.
He has also provided legal counsel to various committees and commissions of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the United Nations African Institute for Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI), and the Bamako Convention on the Trans Boundary Movement of Toxic Wastes and Hazardous Substances. In 1991, he was a member of the Committee of Experts for the review of the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer, in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
Peter is also on the list of Counsel eligible to practice before the International Criminal Court and is an attorney and notary in the Kingdom of Lesotho where he also served as Principal Crown Counsel. He is also qualified to practice in the courts of Rwanda.
Jet John Tumwebaze
Partner
Kampala Associated Advocates
Tumwebaze has over two decades of experience as a practising advocate and is a partner at Kampala Associated Advocates and a member of the litigation department.
He joined the law firm while still a law student at Makerere University, and has since established himself as a formidable litigator and skilled negotiator in top legal matters.
For many years, he led the debt collection team at the firm that was responsible for Umeme’s enormous debt. The team reduced the said debt by 75 percent and Tumwebaze then followed up on the uncollected debt, representing Umeme in over 900 cases to recover the debt of over UGX 50 billion.
Further to this, Tumwebaze represented UK oil firm Tullow Oil in the acquisition of land in the Albertine Graben and participated in the 3D seismic oil exploration exercise.
He led the negotiations with the project-affected persons during the resettlement exercise and thereafter represented Tullow in the claims that led to lawsuits.
Tumwebaze is well versed with property and land conveyance laws in Uganda and has advised numerous clients on the acquisition of land in Public Private Partnerships.
He represented the Uganda National Roads Authority in land disputes relating to land acquired in the construction of the Kampala-Masaka, Masaka-Mbarara and Mbarara-Kabale roads.
He was required to negotiate with many of the road project-affected persons and ascertain the nature of tenure and interests they held in the land. He successfully disposed of all the matters under his charge.
He has extensive experience in the banking and finance sector, particularly in mortgage perfection and bank recoveries and successfully represented such leading banks as Standard Chartered Bank Uganda Limited and Centenary Bank in a multitude of matters.
He was part of the legal team defending Dr Sudhir Ruparelia in Uganda’s largest banking and finance matter to ever be litigated regarding banking regulations, credit and loan agreements worth USD 120 million.
The case was Uganda’s largest banking and finance matter to ever be litigated under the Financial Institutions Act which pertains to among others, a cross section of banking laws and regulations, insolvency of financial institutions, credit and loan agreements.
Tumwebaze also successfully represented the Honorable Margaret Zziwa in a landmark case in the East African Court of Justice challenging her removal as speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly. Zziwa was awarded close to USD 1 million in costs and damages.
He represented Kakira Sugar Limited in a land dispute over land worth over UGX 10 billion. The land in question was vital to the client’s farming activities and overall business. The court found in the client’s favour.
He represented Nile Breweries in disputes on the default of distribution agreements and recovered over UGX 10 billion on behalf of the client. He has also represented the Rift Valley Railways company in various employment and labour disputes arising from the company’s concession agreement with the Government of Uganda.
He has advised and represented the Uganda Communications Commission in numerous employment and labour litigation matters and a matter relating to the breach of license obligations by various media companies.
Tumwebaze also successfully represented the Acholi war claimants in a lawsuit against the government of Uganda for compensation relating to the loss of properties during the Lord’s Resistance war in northern Uganda. The claimants were awarded over UGX 10 billion in compensation.
McDusman Kabega
Managing Partner
Tumusiime, Kabega & Co. Advocates
Kabega is renowned for his meticulous approach to representing defendants in some of Uganda’s most complex criminal cases- most of them successfully.
Mr. Kabega carries with him vast experience from government where he worked for several years in the Attorney General’s office rising to the rank of Principal State Attorney before being made the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, a post he held until he resigned from government service in 1992, and went on to private practice.
Because of the career he had in government service, he was exposed to handling complex legal files not only locally but also those of a transnational nature.
He has attended various seminars, conferences and study tours all concerning matters of a legal nature. In 2004, he was appointed Defence Counsel at the International Criminal Court at The Hague and happens to be one of the two from Uganda.
Kabega has handled high-profile criminal cases such as the Kajubi murder case of 12yr- old Kasirye, the Akbar Godi case, in which Arua MP was accused of killing his girlfriend; the Captain Magara case of shooting and killing two supporters affiliated to Opposition stalwart, Kizza Besigye at Bulange, Mengo in Kampala; The Gen. Henry Tumukunde case in the General Court Martial in 2005 for spreading harmful propaganda which was contrary to the Army Code of Conduct.
He was involved in handling the Dr. Aggrey Kiyingi case accused of masterminding the murder of his wife Robinah Kiyingi. Eventually, Dr Kiyingi was acquitted. Other cases include; the Geofrey Kazinda OPM embezzlement case; the USD16m Alcon case against NSSF; the Gilbert Bukenya in CHOGM funds; the 2016 Mbabazi election petition and also represented Nabikolo in the murder case of husband and tycoon Kasiwukira.
Mr. Kabega also represented Multiple Industries (U) Ltd and Multiple Hauliers (K) Ltd and advised on the formation of a Joint Venture which led to the formation of Multiple Inland Container Depot at Nakawa.
This assignment was to carry out a legal due diligence which necessitated the study of various legislations thereby leading to the putting in place the necessary legal framework for the operations of an Inland Container Depot and to formulate appropriate legal association tools that would govern its shareholders.
In 2001, Mr. Kabega in conjunction with Prome Consultants and Nexant Ltd of U.K was involved in conducting a legal audit in respect of the Kenya Oil Pipeline Company Ltd and the envisaged Kenya-Uganda Oil Pipeline Company Limited.
Mr. Kabega was involved in extensive research in The Republic of Kenya. He was to ascertain the shareholding, assets, labour issues, and the directorship of that company and how it would affect the proposed new company to be owned by Uganda and Kenya jointly.
This assignment greatly enhanced Mr. Kabega’s spectrum of tackling transnational legal issues.
Bruce Musinguzi
Partner
Kampala Associated Advocates
Musinguzi is a co-head of the taxation practice at the law firm. He holds a master’s degree in International Taxation from Georgetown University, Washington D.C and comes with over 14 years of experience. He was recognised as a rising star by Global Chambers.
Between 2008 and 2012, he was an Associate with JP Morgan, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the United States of America.
Bruce is an experienced tax litigator and has represented various clients in some of the country’s biggest and most complex tax matters.
Musinguzi has expertise in tax planning, understands the intricacies of internal tax-related legal issues of businesses and has worked with numerous companies in this regard.
He has an outstanding understanding of the tax regimes of several jurisdictions having worked as a legal associate with both Pwc (USA) and JP Morgan in the United States of America for 5 years.
In addition to the tax practice, Bruce works with the banking and finance practice and is a highly skilled commercial and civil litigator.
He has successfully represented several local and international clients in varied sectors including telecommunications, construction, banking, mining as well as public bodies and government agencies.
Musinguzi successfully represented Standard Chartered Bank in a lawsuit worth UGX 2.3 billion and also challenged many applications made by a fuel distribution company against Standard Chartered Bank regarding a loan of USD 9.1 million.
He also defended MTN in a suit regarding the legality of mobile money transactions and succeeded in having the suit dismissed.
He represented MTN in a UGX 900 million customs tax dispute against the Uganda Revenue Authority challenging the valuation and reclassification of network rollout equipment.
He advised Eskom Uganda Ltd, a power generation company on a dispute with the URA in respect of the entitlement to claim capital allowances on assets that came into use after the concession date with the Government of Uganda.
He was also a key legal advisor to Petro (U) Ltd and subsequently successfully represented the company in court in resolving a UGX 1.3 billion VAT assessment related to the disposal of its assets during the restructuring of the company.
He represented the National Social Security Fund in a UGX 89 billion dispute on whether interest paid to members of the fund is an allowable deduction in the assessment of income tax.
He offers tax advisory services to various companies in a cross-section of sectors including CNOOC, Total Uganda Ltd, Tullow Oil, UMEME, Bujagali Energy Limited, Standard Chartered (U) Limited (SCB), Multichoice (U) Ltd, among others.
Elison Karuhanga
Partner
Kampala Associated Advocates
Elison works in the Litigation and Energy law department and is a trained Oil and Gas lawyer having obtained a Masters of Laws (Oil and Gas Law) from the University of Aberdeen.
The department has and continues to successfully represent several local and international clients in varied sectors including oil and gas companies, telecommunications, construction, and banking, as well as public bodies and government agencies.
Elison has experience in the banking sector and worked with a leading bank for over three years and understands the general operations of the banks.
He has also amassed invaluable experience in insolvency, securitization and document registration not limited to the registration of trademarks, patents and copyrights.
Karuhanga also worked in the Ministry of Justice for over five years as a state attorney and has an excellent appreciation of public and regulatory law and rendered legal advice on diverse subjects to the government of Uganda.
He has, therefore built an extensive litigation experience and has appeared before all major courts of record in Uganda as well as the East African Court of Justice. He is an adept litigator and is effective, efficient and expeditious in court.
Karuhanga has provided resourceful representation to a wide range of clients and following his resignation from the Ministry of Justice he was retained to represent the government in a major lawsuit.
During his tenure under the Ministry of Justice, he handled matters on behalf of the State House of Uganda, the Ministry of Defense, The Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces, the Uganda Police Force, The Ministry of Local Government, The Ministry of Lands, The Registrar of Titles of Uganda, the Ministry of Finance, Parliament of Uganda and the Ministry of Water and Environment to mention but a few.
Karuhanga also advised an upstream oil company on the establishment of its operations in Uganda, on the content of its Production Share Agreement and helped the company obtain an exploration licence in Uganda’s first-ever competitive licensing round.
He also successfully argued the biggest case in Uganda’s Presidential Election Petition before the Supreme Court of Uganda.
As a State Attorney, he appeared in landmark cases and set far-reaching precedents.
He successfully litigated several civil and commercial disputes saving the government billions of Uganda Shillings such as the litigation to recover USD 70 million from a local businessman on behalf of the government.
Karuhanga was involved in the constitutional case regarding the Terrorism bombings in Uganda where he represented the government in Ugandan courts and the East African Court of Justice.
Senior Counsel Mwesigwa Rukutana
Senior Partner
Mwesigwa Rukutana & Co. Advocates
Rukutana is an experienced lawyer and legal scholar in key areas of litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution.
Rukutana is on a watching brief, a legal term which refers to a method normally used in criminal cases by lawyers to represent clients not directly a party to the suit and to function as an observer.
He’s no stranger to Ugandan Courts of Law having previously served as a Deputy Attorney General of Uganda from 1 March 2015 to January 2020.
He also understands statecraft having walked through the corridors of power with considerable influence during his term as a State Minister for Labor in the Ugandan Cabinet and a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushenyi County, Ntungamo District.
The Ntungamo-born former legislator holds a degree of Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, and a Diploma in Law Practice from the Law Development Center in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.
Rukutana previously served as the Registrar of Titles, in the Ministry of Lands, from 1986 until 1988.
Around the same time from 1984 until 1992, he served as a Lecturer in Law at the Law Development Center, in Kampala before being elected as a Delegate to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Ugandan Constitution.
He has also served the government in other leadership capacities such as Minister of State for Finance, Minister of State for Labor, and re-assigned as State Minister for Education, Responsible for Higher Education.
In 2018, Rukutana led a team of 18 State Attorneys to defend the age limit law before the Constitutional Court at Mbale High Court.
Ms. Samali Wakooli
Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions
Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Ms. Wakooli has worked in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) – Uganda for the last 17 years.
She possesses high prosecutorial and advocacy skills and has prosecuted all manner of domestic, transnational and international crimes. These include the high-profile Nebanda murder case and the Kasiwukira murder case.
Currently, she heads the Department of Gender, Children and Sexual Offences.
She handles Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and children-related cases through Prosecution-Guided Investigations, perusal and sanctioning of files and conducting prosecution of related cases as well as cases of trafficking in persons. She also manages gender and equity mainstreaming in the ODPP.
She has vast knowledge in handling cases relating to children, gender-based crimes and trafficking in persons.
Ms. Wakooli holds a Master of Laws (LLM) Degree from Makerere University with an emphasis on Mutual Legal Assistance in Combating Cross border Crimes, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honors Degree from Makerere University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the LawDevelopment Center.
She also holds an Advanced Diploma in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Human rights from Lund University (Sweden), a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration and Management from Uganda Management Institute and has equally attended various professional and management courses making her a trainer in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence matters in Uganda and in the Great Lakes Region.
Ms. Anna Kiiza
Chief State Attorney
Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Ms. Kiiza is a Chief State Attorney in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Uganda and has worked in the ODPP in various capacities for 14 years.
She is attached to the Department of Gender, Children and Sexual Offences, at the Head Office from 2019 to date.
Ms. Kiiza brings valuable prosecution experience in the Katanga murder case having successfully prosecuted the high-profile case of Matthew Kanyamunyu and Munwangari Cynthia. Currently, she is prosecuting Kitutu Maria’s case in the Anti-Corruption Court.
She has handled criminal cases in all courts of judicature right from the Magistrates Court to the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Uganda.
She also manages and prosecutes criminal cases involving Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and children. This includes guiding police in the investigation of Gender-Based Violence and child-related matters through Prosecution-Guided Investigations.
Ms Kiiza also offers technical support to criminal justice actors concerning the handling of Gender-Based Violence cases.
From February 2016 to March 2019, she worked in Kasese District as the Resident Senior State Attorney in charge of prosecutions and administrative duties at the station. From 2011 to 2016, she worked in Masaka District as a State Attorney mandated to prosecute cases and handle complaints.
Mr. Jonathan Muwaganya
Chief State Attorney
Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Mr. Jonathan Muwaganya is a Chief State Attorney in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Uganda and also serves as Deputy Regional Officer, in the Kampala region, among other assignments. He started a career as a Public Prosecutor in 2008 and has handled a wide range of criminal litigations in all Courts of Judicature in Uganda.
Mr. Muwaganya has prosecuted high-profile cases including the Kanyamunyu case, and the Nagirinya murder case. He is also currently involved in prosecuting the Hon. Goretti Kitutu case in the Anti-Corruption Court.
He has worked in diverse regions of Uganda, including Eastern—Iganga as Resident State Attorney (RSA), and other districts such as Gulu, Mbale, Buganda Road and Mukono.
He has also worked as Deputy Head, Plea Bargain Program at the ODPP Head Office.
Prior to joining the ODPP, Uganda, Mr. Muwaganya had a brief practice as a private advocate in Kampala.
Mr. Muwaganya holds a Master of Laws in Sustainable International Development Law from the University of Washington, USA and a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, Kampala; a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (Bar Course) from the Law Development Centre, Kampala.
His other academic credentials include a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Uganda Management Institute, Kampala; and a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Justice from Makerere University.