Uganda: Magistrate rejects Shs73m pay for injuries sustained on duty

By ANTHONY WESAKA

IN SUMMARY: Mr Patrick Wekesa, who was hacked by an assailant in the course of his duty, is demanding Tshs. 500 million compensation.

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Kampala

He has had to sometimes halt court sessions, excuse himself to attend to his nostrils due to uncontrolled flow of mucus. And when he returns, he stammers, as he presides over a court session or delivers a judgement.

This is the kind of life Nakawa Court Grade One Magistrate John Patrick Wekesa has been going through for close to five years as he adjudicates cases after his salivary glands and nerve system were damaged and paralysed when an assailant pounced on him and hacked him while on duty fixing land boundaries in Pallisa District on July, 6, 2007.

This incident left Mr Wekesa a totally different man, the fast speaking, no nonsense magistrate is now a shadow of himself. He speaks with difficulties and slowly, the scare on his face and fingers, a testimony to the agony he went through.

Attack

It all started after he handled a land dispute case in the civil suit No. 44 of 2003; Dome Samwiri and others Vs Pulkol. He had visited Kamuge Village in Pallisa, where the land is located. While the magistrate was talking to the parties, one of the aggrieved persons attacked and hacked him nearly to death.

The police officer, who was supposed to guard the magistrate during the boundary fixing, was about 40 metres away and by the time the police officer ran to rescue the magistrate, he had sustained serious injuries.

Mr Wekesa’s head was hacked several times. Three of his fingers were chopped off in the attack that fractured his jaws. “Last week, I had to use over six handkerchiefs per day to clear mucus as I have been down sick due to the injuries I sustained,” said the magistrate on Thursday, shortly after he appeared before the High Court over compensation claims. His three left fingers that were cut off are now joined with metals and have remained paralysed. His salivary glands and nerves system are paralysed.

Court documents indicate that as a result of the injuries, Mr Wekesa was hospitalised for over two months in various hospitals including Mbale, Kumi, Iganga and Mulago where he still undergoes treatment up to date. According to the medical report, the judicial officer’s assessed disability is at 80 per cent. Mr Wekesa is seeking general and punitive damages.

The case

The judicial officer through his lawyers: Allan Kikwe and Charles Wamukota, now holds the government liable for his partial disability. It emerged on Thursday during the court session that Mr Wekesa has rejected the government’s Shs73m compensation as an out of court settlement.

According to the magistrate, the Shs73m compensation proposed by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Works under the Worker man’s Compensation and Employment Act is little compared to the damages and the medical bills he has had to foot to treat the injuries. The magistrate is demanding for Shs500m.

However, the attorney general, in his defence before the court, contends that the magistrate does not deserve to be compensated as he had no business to go and indulge in fixing land boundaries yet he had concluded hearing this very case. “The plaintiff (Mr Wekesa) having conclusively disposed of the suit, had been functus officio and any matter related to further conduct of the suit, was irregular as he went beyond his duties,” states the attorney general in his defence.

The attorney general adds: “the plaintiff (Mr Wekesa) being a judicial officer, knew very well or ought to have known that by his training, he was not competent to fix boundaries of the suit land.”

The attorney general further claims that the assailant was not a government employee to make the government liable for his acts and omissions.

Following the failure by the magistrate and the attorney general to reach an out-of-court settlement for the past five years, trial High Court Judge Eldad Mwangusya ordered the two parties to file their sworn in witness statements before the matter can be heard on October 4.

Source: Saturday Monitor (25/08/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Magistrate+rejects+Shs73m+pay+for+injuries+sustained+on+duty/-/688334/1486400/-/76pblrz/-/index.html