KAMPALA, Uganda — A military court’s conviction of two former Ugandan state informers over two deadly operations in Kampala has opened another chapter in a wider intelligence scandal that has already ensnared senior military officers and raised questions over how false security information reached the country’s highest leadership.
The General Court Martial in Makindye on Monday convicted Hamza Lyavaala and Adiil Walusansa after both pleaded guilty to two counts of murder arising from operations in Munyonyo and Kalerwe in June 2025.
The two men had been working as government informers on activities linked to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), but prosecutors told the court that they were themselves involved in planning the operations and supplying explosives. The court accepted their guilty pleas after the prosecution’s account of the events was read to them.
Their convictions are significant because the two men were jointly charged with Lt Col Ephraim Byaruhanga, a former military intelligence officer who has denied the allegations and remains before the court.
The case has consequently moved beyond questions about the conduct of two informers to a much broader examination of Uganda’s intelligence and counter-terrorism system.
The Munyonyo operation
The first incident occurred on June 3, 2025, during Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations, when thousands of pilgrims were gathering at religious shrines around Kampala.
According to the prosecution’s account presented in court, Lyavaala and Walusansa were involved in preparations for an operation targeting the area around the Munyonyo Catholic Shrine.
The court heard that a woman carrying explosives travelled towards the targeted area before the bomb exploded, killing her.
Prosecutors allege that the operation had been planned in advance and that the two informers were involved in facilitating it.
The account represents a major departure from the narrative presented to the public at the time, when security agencies treated the incident as an attempted ADF suicide bombing.
A second operation at Kalerwe
The prosecution told the court that the alleged scheme continued after the Munyonyo incident.
A second woman, identified as Azatu Sawiya, was allegedly recruited and taken through preparations for another operation.
On June 21, 2025, prosecutors said Lyavaala had two explosives and, with Byaruhanga’s knowledge, handed them to Sawiya and another man.
Sawiya was allegedly directed towards Kalerwe Market, where she was intercepted by members of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
She was shot and killed before the bomb she was carrying was detonated, according to the prosecution.
The court later heard that Lyavaala had alerted security officers to Sawiya’s movements.
The prosecution now characterises the two operations as part of a criminal scheme rather than straightforward ADF attacks.
The Nkalubo intelligence failure
The convictions have also renewed attention on one of the most consequential intelligence failures involving Uganda’s campaign against the ADF.
In September 2023, President Yoweri Museveni announced that intelligence indicated senior ADF commander Meddie Nkalubo had been killed in a UPDF airstrike in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the time, Museveni described Nkalubo as a key figure in the ADF and said subsequent intelligence indicated that a number of militants had been killed in the operation.
The reported death was later found to be false.
That discrepancy became one of the issues examined during the broader inquiry into Uganda’s military intelligence structures.
Reporting on the investigation said the false Nkalubo death report was among the intelligence failures being examined under the inquiry that eventually led to the arrest of former Chief of Military Intelligence Maj Gen James Birungi.
ChimpReports reported that investigators were examining how intelligence concerning ADF operations and informers had been manipulated, including the 2023 report declaring Nkalubo dead after an airstrike.
From false intelligence to a military investigation
The Nkalubo episode was not the only concern.
Ugandan authorities subsequently opened a wider inquiry into allegations that intelligence reports had been fabricated or manipulated and that false terror alerts may have been used to obtain operational funds.
The investigation was led by a board chaired by Deputy Chief of Defence Forces Lt Gen Sam Okiding.
It eventually drew in senior officers, including Birungi, former Director of Counter-Terrorism Col Peter Ahimbisibwe and Lt Col Byaruhanga.
Birungi was arrested in August 2025 after investigators examined alleged misconduct within military intelligence and counter-terrorism operations. Reports at the time said the inquiry included the false information concerning Nkalubo’s purported death.
The former intelligence chief has since faced charges before the General Court Martial and has denied wrongdoing.
Why the convictions matter
Lyavaala and Walusansa’s guilty pleas provide prosecutors with an important development in the wider case.
The court has now established their criminal responsibility for the two murders through their own admissions.
That does not, however, automatically establish the guilt of the military officers accused in related proceedings.
Byaruhanga, who was jointly charged with the two men, has denied the allegations and remains entitled to the presumption of innocence until the court determines his case. The same applies to other officers implicated in the wider intelligence investigation.
The convictions nevertheless give investigators and prosecutors a clearer account of what they allege happened during the two operations.
They may also become relevant as the authorities examine how information generated by informers was assessed, passed up the military intelligence hierarchy and ultimately used to guide counter-terrorism operations.
From intelligence source to accused
The case exposes a particular vulnerability in intelligence work: the dependence on human sources whose information may be difficult to verify independently.
Lyavaala was regarded as a source with access to ADF networks.
The wider investigation is examining whether information attributed to such sources was sufficiently checked before it informed operational decisions.
That question became especially serious after the false report concerning Nkalubo reached senior intelligence officials and ultimately the President.
The public consequence was significant. A senior ADF commander was publicly declared dead, only for subsequent intelligence to show that the assessment was wrong.
A case still unfolding
The court’s decision on Monday does not close the wider investigation.
Lyavaala and Walusansa are due to return to court on October 12 for sentencing, after prosecutors requested the maximum penalty and defence lawyers asked the court to consider their guilty pleas and personal circumstances.
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The proceedings involving Byaruhanga and other military officers remain separate.
For Uganda’s security establishment, the larger issue is now how two men who were supposed to provide intelligence about an armed group came to be convicted of participating in operations that security agencies initially treated as terrorist threats.
And for the wider investigation, the central question remains how information that investigators now allege was false or deliberately manipulated moved through Uganda’s intelligence system — and how far up the chain of command it travelled.
The answers could determine not only the outcome of the remaining court cases but also how Uganda’s counter-terrorism intelligence operations are scrutinised in the future.
