HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I The General Court Martial has fronted strong evidence against Hamza Lyavaala and Walusansa Adiil, showing how the two former security informers became involved in two operations presented to the public as attempts to intercept ADF suicide bombers but which prosecutors say were deliberately organised missions that resulted in the deaths of two unsuspecting women.
The General Court Martial at Makindye on Monday convicted Lyavaala and Walusansa after the pair pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and accepted prosecution facts detailing how the operations were organised, the people involved and how the victims were led to their deaths.
The evidence admitted in court provides the clearest official account yet of the June 2025 incidents at Munyonyo and Kalerwe, which were initially portrayed as successful counter-terrorism operations against suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) suicide bombers.
First suicide mission
Prosecutor Lt. Regina Nanzala told the court, chaired by Brig. Richard Tukacungurwa, that Lyavaala and Walusansa were working as state informers on ADF activities but were themselves involved in facilitating operations that killed Sumaya Byaruhanga near Munyonyo Catholic Shrine on June 3, 2025, and Azatu Sawiya at Kalerwe Market on June 21.
The prosecution said the two women were innocent and did not know what they were carrying when they were sent towards the areas where security officers were waiting.
About three weeks before the June 3 Martyrs Day celebrations, Lt. Col. Ephraim Byaruhanga, then Director of Special Operations, allegedly convened a meeting with Lyavaala and Walusansa at Goers Hotel in Namulanda on Entebbe Road.
According to facts accepted by the two convicts, Byaruhanga was dissatisfied with his superiors, then deputy intelligence chief Brig. Gen. James Ruhesi and intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Richard Otto, and discussed a purported suicide mission with the informers.
Lyavaala agreed to find a woman for the operation.
Walusansa was given money to rent a house at Kinawa in Natete, while Lyavaala travelled to Busoga and contacted a man identified as Kassim, who brought Sumaya to him.
Prosecutors further alleged that Anthony Sekalala manufactured the bombs with Byaruhanga’s knowledge.
On June 3, Byaruhanga allegedly drove Lyavaala and Walusansa to Munyonyo and told them that he had alerted officers from the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT), who believed they were responding to a genuine terrorist operation.
Sumaya subsequently left the Kinawa house carrying an explosive device and travelled towards Kagwa Bridge, close to Munyonyo Catholic Shrine.
The device exploded, killing her.
The incident happened as thousands of pilgrims gathered for Uganda Martyrs Day, after which security agencies presented it as the interception of a suspected ADF suicide attack.
Second operation at Kalerwe
The prosecution said the same group embarked on another operation about a week later.
Byaruhanga allegedly contacted Lyavaala and Walusansa and instructed them to find another purported suicide bomber. Kassim brought Azatu Sawiya, who was subsequently taken on reconnaissance around Kalerwe.
On June 21, Lyavaala had two bombs and was instructed to give one to Sawiya and another to Kassim, according to the prosecution account he admitted in court.
Lyavaala instructed Sawiya to change motorcycles at Busega before alerting JATT personnel. The officers followed her towards Kalerwe.
Prosecutors said Sawiya was shot dead when she reached Kalerwe Market. The explosive device she was carrying was subsequently detonated before police took control of the scene.
The operation was similarly presented as the interception of a suspected suicide bomber.
The prosecution alleges that the operations were intended to impress Byaruhanga’s superiors and bolster the credibility of his intelligence reporting.
Lyavaala’s intelligence history
The conviction has also revived scrutiny of Lyavaala’s earlier role as a source of intelligence on the ADF.
Security officials previously said Lyavaala had established credibility within military intelligence by supplying limited information about ADF activities that could be verified, while allegedly mixing it with misinformation.
He later came under investigation over intelligence that led Ugandan authorities to conclude in 2023 that senior ADF commander Meddie Nkalubo, also known as The Punisher, had been killed in a UPDF airstrike in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Maj. Gen. James Birungi, who was then head of military intelligence, reportedly passed the information to President Yoweri Museveni, who subsequently announced Nkalubo’s death.
Then-joint security spokesperson Fred Enanga described the reported death as a significant blow to the ADF.
However, Nkalubo later resurfaced in intelligence reporting and was found to be alive and active, raising questions over how false information had travelled through the military intelligence chain and reached the President.
Lyavaala subsequently became a central figure in investigations into whether military intelligence had been deliberately manipulated by its own sources.
Byaruhanga and Birungi cases
Lyavaala and Walusansa are jointly charged with Lt. Col. Byaruhanga, but unlike the two informers, the former Special Operations director has maintained his innocence and is expected to stand trial. The allegations against him have not been proven.
The prosecution facts admitted by Lyavaala and Walusansa are also significant because they provide a different account from earlier reports that linked former military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. James Birungi directly to the Munyonyo and Kalerwe incidents.
Prosecutors instead place Birungi outside the intelligence command structure involved in the June 2025 operations, saying he had already been transferred to command the Mountain Division.
Birungi is separately facing charges of treachery and security-related offences before the General Court Martial following his arrest in August 2025. His case was adjourned on Monday to October 12 after prosecutors said a state witness was outside Uganda on official duties.
His prosecution followed a wider investigation into military intelligence operations by a Board of Inquiry chaired by Deputy Chief of Defence Forces Lt. Gen. Sam Okiding.
Meanwhile, Nanzala asked the court to impose the death penalty on Lyavaala and Walusansa, arguing that the victims were innocent people who had been lured into the operations.
Defence lawyer Maj. Simon Busagwa Nsubuga pleaded for leniency, saying the convicts had families and were capable of reform.
The two men will return to the General Court Martial on October 12 for sentencing.
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