Nangosha v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Cause No. 229 of 2018)

Observed later treatment

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

Held that the declaration of the applicant as Absent Without Official Leave while he was on duty at Junior Staff College was illegal, and his subsequent removal from the payroll and forced retirement without justification were unconstitutional and illegal. The respondent was ordered to pay unpaid salaries for the period the applicant was illegally off the payroll, gratuity based on 16 years of service less amounts already paid, pension arrears, housing allowance, and general damages.

Outcome

Application granted with declarations and orders for payment of unpaid salaries, gratuity, pension, housing allowance, general damages, interest, and costs

Facts

The applicant joined UPDF in 2001 and served until 2017. While attending training at Kabamba Training School in December 2005, he was recalled, detained for two months without trial, and subsequently hospitalised. In June 2006, he was declared AWOL while still under medical treatment. In February 2007, he was transferred to Junior Staff College, Jinja as Quarter Master. In April 2007, the Field Engineering Regiment again declared him AWOL and struck him off the payroll despite his being on duty at Jinja. He remained off the payroll for over ten years, from April 2007 to November 2017, when he was reinstated for one month and then discharged without having applied for retirement. He received only partial gratuity covering six years instead of his full sixteen years of service.

Issues

1. Whether the Applicant was illegally declared Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL).
2. Whether the Applicant was illegally struck off the UPDF pay roll.
3. Whether the Applicant was illegally retired from the UPDF.
4. Whether the Applicant is entitled to the remedies sought.

Orders

• Declaration that the action of the Field Engineering Regiment - Masaka declaring the Applicant Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) when he was on duty at the Junior Staff College- Jinja was illegal.
• Declaration that the act of retiring the Applicant from the UPDF service without any justifiable reason was unconstitutional and illegal.
• Respondent to pay the Applicant all his unpaid salaries from 15th April 2007 to 30th November 2017 amounting to UGX 92,432,970.
• Respondent to pay the Applicant his gratuity for 16 years of service, with amounts already paid deducted from the total due.
• All the Applicant's pension arrears to be paid and he is to be put on the pension pay roll.
• Respondent to pay the Applicant housing allowance for a two bedroomed house for the period of default.
• Respondent to pay the Applicant general damages of UGX 70,000,000.
• Interest at 8% per annum on all monetary awards from the date of ruling until payment in full.
• Respondent to pay costs of the application.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (23)

• Constitution of Uganda Art.20
• Constitution of Uganda Art.21
• Constitution of Uganda Art.40(2)
• Constitution of Uganda Art.43(1)
• Constitution of Uganda Art.45
• Constitution of Uganda Art.50
• Constitution of Uganda Art.126(2)(c)
• Constitution of Uganda Art.139
• Judicature Act Cap.13 s.33
• Civil Procedure Act Cap.71 s.98
• Civil Procedure Rules SI 71-1 Order 52 Rule 1
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 8 Rule 3
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 9 Rule 10
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 9 Rule 11(2)
• Judicature (Fundamental Rights and Freedoms) (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 1992 Rule 3
• UPDF Act s.71(1)
• UPDF Act s.71(3)
• UPDF Act s.96
• UPDF (Pensions and Gratuities) Regulations Regulation 4
• UPDF (Pensions and Gratuities) Regulations Regulation 5
• UPDF (Conditions of Service) (Officers) Regulations SI 307-2 Regulation 24(2)
• UPDF (Conditions of Service) (Officers) Regulations Regulation 34(4)
• Civil Procedure Act s.27(2)

Cases cited (14)

• Prof Oloka Onyango & Others v The Attorney General (Constitutional Petition No. 6 of 2014)
• H.G. Gandesha & another v G.J Lutaya (SCCA No. 14 of 1989)
• Lt. Col Levy Vicent Mugyenyi & 51 Ors v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Application No. 300 of 2013)
• Major Noel Drago Nuwe v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Cause No. 428 of 2017)
• Omunyokol Akol Johnson v Attorney General (Civil Appeal No. 6 of 2012)
• Interfreight Forwarders (U) Ltd v East African Development Bank (SCCA No. 33 of 1992)
• Fredrick Zaabwe v Orient Bank Ltd (SCCA No. 4 of 2007)
• General David Sejusa v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Cause No. 176 of 2015)
• Asobasi Daniel Okumu v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Application No. 43 of 2016)
• Robert Coussens v Attorney General (SCCA No. 08 of 1999)
• Kibimba Rice Ltd v Umar Salim (SCCA No. 17 of 1992)
• Takiya Kashwahiri & Another v Kajungu Denis (CACA No. 85 of 2011)
• Ntabgoba v Editor-in-chief of the New Vision & Another [2004] 2 EA 234
• Francis Butagira v Deborah Mukasa (SCCA No. 6 of 1989)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

• Proline Soccer Academy v Commissioner Land Registration (Miscellaneous Application No.494 of 2018)

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.