Fort Portal City Struggles With Court Cases

Fort Portal City authorities are struggling with court cases. Before being elevated to City status, the municipality was dragged to court by companies over breach of contract. 

Some of the lawsuits against the city include Plinth Technical Works which accused the municipality of illegal termination of the Nyakaana road contract. The municipality was also dragged to court by former division and municipal councillors over breach of contract.

The councillors sued Fort Portal City and the Attorney general for non-payment of their allowances.  In their petition, the councillors say that they were elected in 2016 for a five-year term that expires this month. 

They, however, say that the contract with their voters was terminated prematurely after Fort Portal was elevated from a municipality to a tourism city status.

The municipality was also sued by a law firm for failure to pay 1.5 Billion Shillings legal fees.

Edison Asaba, the Mayor of Fort Portal City the court cases are affecting service delivery in the city. He explains that they are concerned that the City could use the local revenue to pay costs if the city loses the cases.

According to Asaba, the City Executive is proposing to settle the cases out of court to reduce the court fees and minimize the risk of conflict with the companies.

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Betty Mujungu, the female councillor representing North Division says that settling the cases out of court could be the only solution. She says that some projects could stall if the City loses the court cases.

Margret Kabajwara the youth representative in the city council accuses some technical staff of allegedly conniving with the companies to sue the City Council.

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