Kelvin Balyebuga

Profile

Kelvin Balyebuga is the Managing Partner of Hove & Quill and heads the firm’s Dispute Resolution and Tax Advisory practice.

An Advocate of the High Court of Uganda, Kelvin holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation and Revenue from the East African School of Taxation and is reading for an LLM in International Energy, Policy and Law at Uganda Christian University. His tax practice takes a dispute from audit reconciliation and objection at the Uganda Revenue Authority through to the Tax Appeals Tribunal. His method is evidential: he builds the case from the audited accounts and the auditors who signed them, not from explanations assembled after the event.

In the courts he appears from the Chief Magistrate’s Court to the Court of Appeal, and before the Registrar of Companies, the Tax Appeals Tribunal and the Electricity Disputes Tribunal. Beyond the courtroom, he is outside counsel to lenders, logistics and technology companies and civil society organisations, advising on loan security and recovery, trade and project finance, employee discipline under the Employment (Amendment) Act 2025, and regulatory compliance for NGOs.

Kelvin designs and runs the firm’s clerkship programme, which trains over twenty law students each year.

Membership in Professional Societies

• Advocate, High Court of Uganda
• Member, Uganda Law Society
• Fellow, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung Uganda Youth 4 Policy Fellowship
• Executive, Leadership Square Africa

Professional Qualifications

• LLM in International Energy, Policy and Law (in progress), Uganda Christian University
• Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation and Revenue, East African School of Taxation
• Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Law Development Centre, Uganda (2020)
• LL.B (Hons), Uganda Christian University (2015)

Career Summary

• 2026 to date: Managing Partner, Hove & Quill, Uganda

Areas of Expertise

• Litigation and Dispute Resolution
• Tax Disputes and Tax Advisory
• Corporate Governance and Company Law
• Banking, Finance and Real Property
• Employment and Labour
• Energy and Regulatory

Top Matters

• Acting for the shareholders of Igara Tea Growers Factory Limited, a 7,000-member tea company, in a dispute over the lapsed mandate of its Board. Secured a ruling of the Registrar of Companies ([2026] UGRSB 38) dismissing all four of the company’s preliminary objections and directing those acting as directors to lodge no further resolutions or returns pending the High Court’s pronouncement. Before the High Court at Bushenyi, the company withdrew its appeal against that decision after his objection was upheld.
• Acting as lead counsel for a digital logistics platform before the Tax Appeals Tribunal in a challenge to a substantial tax assessment by the Uganda Revenue Authority, building the case on sworn evidence from the taxpayer’s former external auditors and reconciliation schedules tied to the audited accounts.
• Represented the same client in the Commercial Division of the High Court in debt recovery claims against a construction contractor, and against a company and its director.
• Acted for a commercial farmer in a claim against the Uganda Wildlife Authority for losses from human-wildlife conflict, grounded in environmental law and the constitutional protection of property, and leads enforcement of the decree by certificate of order under the Government Proceedings Act.
• Acting for a consumer before the Electricity Disputes Tribunal in a damages claim against an electricity distributor.
• Acting on retainer for a microfinance lender on loan and security documentation, title verification, guarantor recovery suits under Order 36 and the review of its credit-bureau service agreement.
• Advising a coffee exporter on its default under a credit line from a Belgian lender secured on endorsed sales contracts, and an origination adviser on the fee structure of EPC-plus-finance infrastructure projects in Uganda.
• Advising a regional logistics company as outside counsel on employee discipline, its HR manual and staff and internship contracts under the Employment (Amendment) Act 2025, and on recovery of unpaid freight.
• Advising a data-research organisation on the voluntary winding-up of a subsidiary, a board transition, work permits, registration of seven trade marks and its exposure under the Protection of Sovereignty Act 2026.