Court reinstalls Dr. Walusansa as UCI deputy director

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The civil division of the high court has nullified a decision by the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) Executive Director Jackson Orem to remove his deputy Dr Victoria Walusansa from office.

In a ruling on Friday, Justice Musa Sekaana maintained that Walusansa, who has been the Institute’s Deputy Director since March 2013 following her appointment by the President, was illegally removed from the position.

Walusansa ran to court after Orem declared her job vacant, placing an internal advert calling for staff to apply in December 2022.

In their submissions to court, UCI noted that the job had been declared vacant after President Museveni promoted Walusansa to the position of senior consultant medical oncologist in May 2022.

However, in his ruling, Sekaana says Orem’s decision was not justified saying that according to the law it’s only the President who has powers to appoint, remove, suspend or re-appoint any person.

He also noted that the promotion was meant to support her other roles within the institution. “Fundamental to the legitimacy of public decision-making is the principle that official decisions should not be infected with improper motives such as fraud or dishonesty, malice or personal interest. These motives, which have the effect of distorting or unfairly biasing the decision-maker’s approach to the subject of the decision, automatically cause the decision to be taken for an improper purpose and thus take it outside the permissible parameters of the power….”, the ruling reads in part.

Sekaana says the institute’s managers are obliged to correctly understand the law that regulates their decision-making power and must give effect to it.

“The spirit of the Uganda Cancer Institute Act should not be defeated by distorting and overhauling the institution with baseless policy of trying to assert authority and power over the persons who are saving lives or giving care to the cancer patients”.

Sekaana further stopped the Institute and Executive Director or any member of the board from victimizing, intimidating or harassing Walusansa in any way as a result of this case.

UCI has recently been marred by continued intrigue and infighting by top officials that Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng had earlier asked top leaders to stop infighting warning that this would affect care for cancer patients.

Early this year, staff of the institute petitioned the Inspectorate of Government (IG) over among others similar allegations of the top officials in the institute illegally removing staff from their positions.

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URN