Court stops forced leave imposed on division town clerk, treasurer

Kabale, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  High court in Kabale has issued a temporary injunction blocking the forced leave imposed on James Twinamatsiko, the Principal Assistant Town Clerk in Charge of Southern Division in Kabale Municipality and his treasurer, Charity Tushemereirwe.

The Kabale Town Clerk, Joseph Monday sent the duo on forced leave on Monday for alleged abuse of office and corruption. He said the stalemate between the two officials and political leaders threatens the administration of the division.

There have been repeated calls by residents and southern division leaders for the transfer of the two officials for alleged failure to support the division council to pass the 2019/2020 financial year budget, failure to account for more than Shillings 500 million and none remittance of the 25 percent local revenue collection to lower local councils.

They are also accused of incompetence, use of abusive language and failure to account for Shillings 2.45 million claiming that it was spent on the end of year party, which didn’t take place.

On July 11, 2019, Monday replaced Twinamatsiko with Sam Mutaremwa who has been serving as the Northern Division Assistant Community Development Officer while Tushemerirwe was replaced with Shaban Tumwebaze who has been serving as the Senior Accountant Assistant at Kabale municipality.

However, the duo declined to handover office and petitioned court through their lawyer, Timothy Twikirize of Twikirize and company advocates stopping the town clerk from enforcing his directive.

An interim order issued on Tuesday by Kabale High court Registrar, Didas Muhumuza restrains Kabale Municipality authorities from implementing the directive sending Twinamatsiko and Tushemereirwe on forced leave until their application is disposed of.

In the application, Timothy Twikirize, says the rights of their clients were infringed on since they were not given enough time to table their defense.  Twikirize welcomed the court decision, saying his clients will continue serving until court decides their petition.

The Southern Division LC III Chairperson, Macklin Batwaare Kamusiime, promised to address the media on the matter because she was still in shock about the injunction since isn’t ready to work with the duo.

The town clerk declined to comment on the matter, saying he was yet to receive a copy of the temporary injunction. On June 26, 2019, a group of residents and political leaders stormed the Southern division offices in Mwanjari with intentions of ejecting Twinamatsiko and Tushemereirwe out of office.

It took the intervention of Kabale District Chairperson, Patrick Besigye Keihwa and Mayor Emmanuel Sentaro Byamugisha to direct the Kabale Town clerk, Joseph Monday to take over southern division and ensure the approval of the budget as Twinamatsiko and Tushemereirwe are investigated.

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