Three months after 1,013 ex-city council employees received the good news of court awarding them Shs100bn in a six-year legal battle, Kampala Capital City Authority's top executive has appealed against part of the High court decision.
In 2012, ten former employees of the defunct Kampala City Council led by Justine Kasule, the former principal assistant town clerk for Makindye, petitioned court. The allegation was that their services were illegally terminated 17 months after KCCA came into being.
They sued the ministry of Public Service, KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi, KCCA, Attorney General and the Secretary, Public Service Commission. The petitioners challenged the use of "illegal" administrative guidelines issued by the latter with conditions contrary to those under KCCA Act which hired their services.
On April 24, the High court (Civil Division) trial judge Lydia Mugambe ruled that the termination was both embarrassing and inconveniencing -- because the applicants were dismissed unceremoniously before attaining 60 years as per the laws pertaining to civil servants.
Whereas the AG and KCCA had issued intentions to appeal, only Musisi eventually filed a memorandum of an appeal citing eight grounds. She averred that "the learned trial judge erred in law and fact when she held that the respondents were former employees of KCCA entitled to remuneration and other applicable benefits under the KCCA Act, 2010," one of the grounds says.
Mugambe had noted that the former KCC employees had suffered financial distress. She added that they could have invested their retirement packages and earned sufficient profit from them if they had been calculated properly.
"I hereby award each of the applicants general damages of Shs 5 million. However, I am declining to award exemplary or punitive damages. Also, considering that the pain and suffering occasioned to the applicants by both the government and KCCA, the general damages should be paid jointly and or severally by both KCCA and government," Mugambe ruled.
She also ordered that the applicants be paid remuneration and other applicable benefits under the KCCA Act and other laws for the 17 months they worked under KCCA.
Shortly after Musisi's appeal, the ex-workers led by Brian Ssegawa, who was a parish chief of Busega, petitioned President Museveni through the minister in charge of Kampala Beti Kamya.
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