Pastor rejects Shs182b award, wants more money

A pastor who was last week awarded Shs182 billion through court has rejected the award and petitioned the Court of Appeal, demanding more money in compensation for loss of his business after the cancellation of his permit for sand mining in Lwera, Kalungu District.

Kampala High Court awarded Mr Daniel Walugembe through his company DMW Uganda Limited Shs182 billion as compensation for loss of his business and general damages caused.

However, Mr Walugembe yesterday claimed that the award was less because the transaction with the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) was of a commercial nature.

“I acquired a commercial permit but the judge was lenient to give 10 percent yet the special damages awarded were admitted by both the Attorney General and Nema,” Mr Walugembe said.

Addressing journalists in Kampala, Mr Walugembe explained that the evidence brought to court was defendants’ (Attorney General and Nema) working documents prepared by the government geologists who did the valuation. “If the judge had given any money outside what was tendered by the geologist, it would be blamed on the court. Nema should not have claimed that it worked on pressure by Parliament because it was not party to the contract,” he added. Pastor Walugembe’s notice of appeal comes hardly a week after the Attorney General appealed against the court decision.

The court awarded DMW Uganda Limited Shs178 billion as compensation for loss of the business and its earnings and special damages worth Shs3b as well as Shs1 billion in special damages and legal costs incurred.

In the notice of appeal, the Attorney General said he was dissatisfied with the May 20 judgement and that he intends to appeal against the decision.

The court case resulted from June 2015 with a wetland resource use permit for sand mining on 69.6 hectares comprised in Kakwanzi Village, Kitti Parish, Bukamba Sub-county, Kalungu District, which was to run for three years.

According to the permits, DMW Uganda Limited contracted actuaries to ascertain commercial viability of the project and the same was rightly appraised, with the availability of massive sand deposits.

The court ruled that the projects were halted illegally and without justification and thus causing the plaintiff enormous loss of business which entitles the company to compensate for all the loss it suffered.

Background

Issue. In June 2015, Nema awarded DMW Uganda limited a wetland resource use permit for sand mining on 69.6 hectares comprised in Kakwanzi Village, Kitti Parish, Bukamba Sub-county, Kalungu District, which was to run for a period of three years.