KAMPALA-High court civil Division in Kampala has delivered a judgement in a land mark case where Namale Desire, a daughter to the late Milly Namutamba a migrant worker who died in Saudi Arabia sued Horeb Services Uganda Limited and its proprietor Ezra Mugisha acussing them of neglecting her mother’s right to life thus leading to her death while at work in 2019.
Court heard that Namutamba was taken to Saudi Arabia in 2018 to work , but before finalizing the whole process, she was subjected to medical examination were it was confirmed that she was under perfect health condition. She went for work as she kept on being in touch with her relatives at home for about five months.
That later on after a period of about five months , she went mute , the daughter engaged the company (Horeb) for close to two years on what had happened to her mother but she didn’t gain anything. That later on in September 2022 through her uncle, she discovered that her mother had died while at work and later she reached out to the management of Horeb which refused to give her a clear position, thus resulting into this suit.
in his decision delivered via Electronic mail, Justice Boniface Wamala ruled that according to evidence produced by the applicants in court, he was satisfied that its the respondent’s action which caused Namutamba’s death.
“The decision, act or omission by the respondents to operate off the Saudi tracking system was a grave flaw on the part of the respondents. Evidence has shown that the same did not happen only in regard to Milly Namutamba but for all the migrant workers that had been externalized by the 1st respondent in collaboration with the Al Manasa Saudi recruitment agency. “ruled court
That In absence of any explanation by the respondents as to how this grave error was allowed to occur, court found it safe to make an inference that the same was calculated by the respondents for purpose of profit making at the expense of the other persons involved.
“The respondents shall pay to the applicants a sum of UGX 200,000,0000/= (Uganda Shillings Two Hundred Million only) as general damages, the respondents shall pay to the applicants a sum of UGX 50,000,000/ Uganda Shillings Fifty Million only) in exemplary damages and the respondents shall also pay the taxed costs of the application to the applicants.” ordered the Judge
Upon receiving this judgement, Namale welcomed the court decision because they have passed through a lot of hard time with other two siblings.
“No amount of money can compensate some body’s life but atleast we have received some justice. As a family we would push to have our mother’s body repatriated back to Uganda for a decent burrial.”
Steven Kabengwa Nsereko , the widower on addressing the press at Court on Tuesday noted that his wife went abroad to raise money for school fees of her her Children but unfortunately she didn’t make it.
“I was left with the burden of looking after these children and since the untimely death of my wife, i have been taking good care of all these children.”
Mr. Titus Asiimwe , the lawyer for the Applicants in this matter, while commenting on the issue of repatriating Namutamba’s body , promised that they are going to look into with their clients to come up with the next step.
