Kazungu contends that through his lawyers of Thomas and Michael Advocates he wrote to the head of Public Service who also wrote to the Permanent Secretary asking her to justify why he shouldn’t be reinstated.
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Interdicted Commissioner for Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister, Apollo David Kazungu
The Commissioner
for Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister, Apollo David Kazungu has sued
government for failing to reinstate him to office more than six months after he
was interdicted on corruption related allegations.
Kazungu
was interdicted by the OPM Permanent Secretary, Christine Guwatudde Kintu on
February 23rd, 2018 together with Walter Omondi, the Refugee Desk
Officer in Mbarara, Francis Nkwasibwe, a Registration Officer in Mbarara and
John Baptist Sentamu, formerly the Camp Commandant in Mbarara.
They
were accused of among others theft of food items meant for refugees, bribery in
the allocation of government land, scholarships, trafficking in minor girls,
married women to men not of their choice, interference in refugee elections and
community leaders.
Their interdiction
stemmed from a letter by the by the United
Nations Resident Coordinator to the Prime Minister, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda implicating
the officials on the said allegations and mismanagement of the Solidarity
Summit Funds worth US$540 (approximately Shillings 1.9 trillion).
Now, in his petition
before the High Court Civil Division, Kazungu says
government has investigated him for more than the mandatory six months since he
was interdicted but failed to come up with evidence implicating him on the
charges levied against him.
According to Kazungu, on October 15th, 2018, the OPM Permanent Secretary, sought
advice from the Solicitor General on his reinstatement and the latter advised
that an appeal should be made to the Public Service for his reinstatement.
Kazungu contends that through his lawyers of
Thomas and Michael Advocates he wrote to the head of Public Service who also
wrote to the Permanent Secretary asking her to justify why he shouldn’t be
reinstated.
“Both the advice of the Solicitor General and
the directive of the Public Service Commission were disregarded by the
Permanent Secretary”, reads his application in court. Kazungu says that he has
been advised by his lawyers that the failure by the Permanent Secretary to reinstate
him is illegal, procedurally improper and irrational.
Kazungu
now wants court to declare the refusal by the OPM Permanent Secretary to
reinstate him to office as the Commissioner for refugees unconstitutional as
well as award general damages for inconveniences caused to him.
Court
has summoned the Attorney General to file government’s defense before the
matter is allocated to a Judge for hearing. Trouble for Kazungu and his colleagues
started in 2018 when the United Nations wrote to the Uganda government
demanding that investigations be carried out into alleged corruption, theft of money
meant for refugees and inflation of the number of refugees.
As a result, OPM together with UN agencies
conducted investigations which exposed more than 300,000 ghost refugees in
Uganda.
