We celebrate the decision of Court yesterday, 7th October 2024, awarding the family of the late Namutumba Milly 250 million shillings in damages to be paid by the labour export company, Horeb Services Limited.

200 million shillings in general damages, because “Herob externalised the deceased off the Saudi Arabia tracking system (MUSANED), which was irregular and made it hard for the deceased to be tracked by the Uganda authorities in Saudi Arabia.”

On 19th August 2018, Horeb exported Namutumba to work as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia. Five months later, her family lost contact with her. Over four years since she migrated, in September 2022, her family discovered that she had died; but they will never know for sure the cause of her death.

Nearly three years since she died, her family was informed that Namutumba had died of “cardiopulmonary arrest”; as in she had died from the “cessation of adequate heart function and respiration.” The explanation that she who was perfectly healthy when she traveled to Saudi Arabia, developed heart and lung failure within five months, is hard to believe.

Her family is robbed of the ability to ensure and assure that her remains are decently buried. Apparently, Namutumba “died on 21st January 2019 and was buried in Saudi Arabia without any permission granted by her family members and without informing her family members … And also without the consent of the Uganda Embassy in Saudi Arabia.” Worse more, “the place of the said deceased burial was not known or identified.”

Appreciating the family members’ “mental anguish, inconvenience, grief and pain while trying to find out the whereabouts of the deceased”; discovering she had died; and was buried in a place unknown, justified the general damages award.

50 million shillings in exemplary damages was because Court surmised that Horeb acting irregularly outside of MUSANED was “for purpose of profit making at the expense of the other persons involved.” And it was right and proper to “punish Horeb and deter it from repeating the particular wrongful act.”

Court further penalized Herob and instructed it to pay the costs incurred by Namutumba’s family in bringing the application: “Namale & Another V Horeb Services Uganda Limited & Another (Miscellaneous Cause 21 of 2023).”

Namale Desire, daughter of late Namutumba, and other family members would never have achieved such resounding victory without the help of Women’s Probono Initiative (WPI).

“I believe WPI is the best for the society we live in considering that it’s in an African setting where women are considered inferior to men and they are not given the opportunity to speak up or even to be heard,” Nabatanzi Babra, CPAR Uganda follower.

In this case, WPI ensured Namale spoke up and got some justice for her late mother. Award wining human rights lawyer, Primah Kwagala, is the leader of WPI, She is world renowned for getting justice for women. Among her other high profile cases, is when she got justice for the mothers of the babies that died under the quasi medical care of Renee Bach.

Bach, the U.S. Missionary who brazenly run a medical facility in Busoga, in East Central Uganda, despite having no medical training at all. Read more about it in “U.S. Missionary With No Medical Training Settles Suit Over Child Deaths At Her Center.”

We celebrate Advocate Kwagala and her team at WPI for the great work that they are doing accessing and ensuring justice for disadvantaged women in Uganda, whose dignity and rights are violated.