Roughton International Ltd and Others v Uganda Investment Authority (Miscellaneous Cause No. 96 of 2025)

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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

The Court declined to appoint an arbitrator, finding that the application was premature. Although the parties had not yet agreed on an arbitrator, both remained willing to arbitrate and had agreed to a single arbitrator. The Court noted that ICAMEK functions as the statutory appointing authority under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The Court gave the parties twenty days to agree on an arbitrator, failing which either party may apply to ICAMEK for appointment, thereby respecting party autonomy and the contractual arbitration agreement.

Outcome

Application dismissed as premature; parties directed to agree on arbitrator within 20 days or apply to ICAMEK

Facts

The Applicants, a consortium of engineering consulting firms, were contracted by the Respondent as Owner's Engineers to supervise infrastructure development in the Kampala Industrial Business Park in Namanve at a cost of Euros 8,805,781. The Applicants alleged that the Respondent failed to pay fees amounting to Euros 2,802,825.10 over 18 months. The Applicants declared a dispute and commenced arbitration proceedings. The parties agreed to a single arbitrator instead of a panel of three but failed to agree on the appointment. The Applicants proposed arbitrators which the Respondent rejected on grounds of potential conflict of interest. The Respondent then proposed five arbitrators, three of which the Applicants rejected without justifiable cause, and failed to comment on the remaining two despite repeated reminders. The Applicants then applied to Court for appointment of an arbitrator, contending there was no appointing authority. The Respondent opposed, arguing the application was premature and that it had acted in good faith throughout.

Issues

1. Whether the Court should appoint an arbitrator to adjudicate the dispute between the Applicants and the Respondent.

Orders

• The parties are given twenty (20) days from the date of this Ruling to agree on an arbitrator.
• In the event of failure to agree, either party shall submit a written request to ICAMEK as an appointing authority under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act to appoint an arbitrator.
• Each party shall meet its costs of this application.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (9)

• Judicature Act Cap. 16 s.37
• Civil Procedure Act Cap. 282 s.98
• Civil Procedure Rules SI 71-1 Order 52 rules 1 and 3
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap. 5 s.2(1)
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap. 5 s.9
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap. 5 s.11(3)(b)
• ICAMEK (Arbitration) Rules 2018 Rule 6(1)
• ICAMEK (Arbitration) Rules 2018 Rule 14(1)
• Judicature (Electronic Filing, Service and Virtual Proceedings) Rules 2025

Cases cited (3)

• Ambitious Construction Company Limited v Uganda National Cultural Centre (Miscellaneous Application No. 441 of 2023)
• Zhonghao Overseas Construction Engineering Co. Ltd v Attorney General and 3 Others (Miscellaneous Application No. 1955 of 2023)
• Labx Scientific Ltd v Katakwi District Local Government and Attorney General (Miscellaneous Cause No. 2 of 2025)

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