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Kamya Turwomwe v Attorney General and Another (Misc Cause 209 of 2022)

High Court · [2023] UGHCCD 157 · 2023 Judicial Review Granted AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Judicial review application challenging findings and recommendations of a Parliamentary committee report
Decision
Application partly allowed. The recommendation to investigate the applicant quashed. Other grounds of judicial review dismissed.

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The High Court granted judicial review and quashed the PAC-COSASE recommendation that the former Minister of Lands be investigated for initiating a supplementary budget process. The court held that the recommendation was irrational because the evidence showed the Minister merely requested funding in accordance with her duties and Presidential directives, and the supplementary budget was properly initiated by the Ministry of Finance and approved by Parliament's own ad-hoc committee. The decision to blame the Minister for requesting funds was unreasonable and unsupported by the evidence.

Outcome

Application partly allowed. The recommendation to investigate the applicant quashed. Other grounds of judicial review dismissed.

Facts

The applicant, former Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, wrote to the Minister of Finance requesting funds for Uganda Land Commission to settle land compensation claims, including Presidential directives and court orders. Parliament appointed an ad-hoc committee which verified the claims and recommended payments totaling UGX 10.62 billion in a supplementary budget, which Parliament approved. The Auditor General later reported irregularities in the supplementary budget award. PAC-COSASE investigated and recommended that the applicant be investigated for initiating the supplementary budget process. The applicant sought judicial review, arguing the recommendation was irrational, procedurally improper, biased, and illegal.

Issues

  1. Whether the applicant raises any grounds for judicial review.
  2. Whether the PAC-COSASE acted irrationally in recommending that the applicant be investigated for initiating the supplementary budget process.
  3. Whether the PAC-COSASE proceedings were tainted by procedural impropriety.
  4. Whether the PAC-COSASE was biased in its investigation of the applicant.
  5. Whether the PAC-COSASE acted illegally in making its findings and recommendations.
  6. What remedies are available to the applicant.

Orders

  • An order of Certiorari is issued quashing recommendation (1) of the PAC-COSASE report: 'Hon. Beti Namisango Kamya Turwomwe, former Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development should be investigated in respect to her participation in the commencement of the 10.6 billion payments.'
  • No order as to costs.

Rules and key headnotes

Judicial Review — Irrationality — Wednesbury Unreasonableness
A decision is irrational and subject to judicial review where it is so outrageous in defiance of logic or accepted moral standards that no sensible person who applied their mind to the question could have arrived at it. The test requires the decision to be so grossly unreasonable that no reasonable authority, addressing itself to the facts and law, would have made such a decision.
Judicial Review — Parliamentary Committees — Quasi-Judicial Functions
Parliamentary committees exercising quasi-judicial functions by receiving allegations, conducting proceedings, taking evidence, and making findings and recommendations are amenable to judicial review. Courts have a duty to interrogate the actions of such decision-makers and give appropriate orders where wrongdoing is established.
Judicial Review — Irrationality — Material Error of Fact
A decision not supported by the whole evidence available on record and incapable of reasonably supporting the finding of fact is irrational and unreasonable. A material mistake or disregard of a material fact in the reasoning process renders a decision irrational and may be quashed for material error of fact.
Natural Justice — Fair Hearing — Administrative Bodies
Where an administrative body investigates a person, the duty to act justly and fairly requires giving the person a fair opportunity to make relevant statements and to correct or controvert any relevant statement brought forward to their prejudice. The standard is that the body must do its best to act justly and reach just ends by just means.
Judicial Review — Bias — Standard of Proof
Allegations of bias or real likelihood of bias must be supported by cogent and reasonable evidence to satisfy the court that such bias existed. Mere vague suspicion of whimsical and unreasonable people cannot constitute proof of such serious complaints.
Judicial Review — Illegality Distinguished from Irrationality
Illegality strictly connotes lack of authority to do what a public body is supposed to do. Arriving at an unreasonable or irrational decision is not the same as illegality. Where a body acts within its lawful mandate but reaches an irrational conclusion, the ground is irrationality, not illegality.

Legislation cited (19)

Cases cited (11)

  • Allibhai & 2 Ors v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Cause No. 70 of 2020)
  • Gillick vs West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112
  • Registered Trustees of Ker Bwobo Land Development Trust v Nwoya District Land Board (Miscellaneous Civil Application No. 13 of 2018)
  • Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v. Wednesbury Corporation [1948] 1 KB 223
  • Council of Civil Service Union vs. Minister for Civil Service [1985] AC 374 ALL ER 935
  • Mohinder Singh Gill and another v. The Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi and others, 1978 AIR 851, 1978 SCR (3) 272
  • Doody v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [1993] 3 All E.R. 92
  • De Verteuil v. Knaggs and Another [1918] A.C. 557
  • Ojenjbede vs Esan & Anor 8NSCR 461 at page 471
  • R (on the application of March) v Secretary of State for Health [2010] EWHC 765 (Admin); Med.L.R 271
  • R v (on application of MD (Gambia)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 121

Full judgment

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Kamya Turwomwe v Attorney General and Another (Misc Cause 209 of 2022) [2023] UGHCCD 157 (31 May 2023)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.