Uganda: court martial sentences two to death over staged suicide bombings

Two men were sentenced to death on November 4, 2026, by a Ugandan military court after being found guilty of two counts of premeditated murder.
The capital sentences against Adiil Walusansa (also known as Hamid Walusansa) and Hamza Lyavaala were handed down by the General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala.
The two men, former recruits of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group and subsequently military informants, reportedly planned suicide bombings in June 2025, to coincide with the Martyrs Day celebrations.
They recruited vulnerable women, transporting them from the Busoga region and handing them explosive devices, without the women being aware of the actual danger.
In the two bombings at the Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine and the Kalerwe market in Kampala, the two women carrying the devices (Sumaya Byaruhanga and Sawuya Azatu) and a motorcycle taxi (boda-boda) rider were killed.
Walusansa and Lyavaala pleaded guilty.
The chairman of the court martial, Brigadier General Richard Tukacungurwa, ruled that the gravity of their actions outweighed any mitigating factors and that the two pose a permanent threat to society, thereby decreeing the death penalty. The convicts, however, retain the right to appeal.
According to investigations by the military prosecution, the two defendants wanted to create a false state of terror alarm in Kampala. In this way, the military intelligence unit could justify the request for massive state security funds.