Gov’t appeals against compensation of Ingrid Turinawe

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka says the government has the right to defend itself against a court decision that granted Ingrid Turinawe 170 million shillings in the infamous groping case she suffered during a protest.

Turinawe, the Secretary for Mobilization in the Forum for Democratic Change has raised concern through her Facebook page wondering why the Attorney General Kiwanuka is appealing against the ruling given over three years.

“Mr. Kiryoowa Kiwanuka, the Chairman Muhoozi Birth Day who doubles as the country’s Attorney Gen has appealed against our court judgement of 2019. Three years after court ruled against the inhuman, degrading treatment and torture that I was subjected to in 2011, he feels I was not tortured very well to deserve compensation,” reads the post on her page.

Turinawe adds that Kiryowa’s action of appealing affirms that his predecessors were not wise like him.

“Now that he is the one in office such old silly file has been taken back to the court of appeal so that he proves that he is a man and plus,” added Turinawe before threatening to gather her relatives to come for a protest at Attorney General’s chambers.

In 2011, male police officers were captured on camera squeezing Turinawe’s breasts as she was going for a political rally in Nansana in Wakiso district. But she petitioned the High Court seeking to be compensated for the degrading and inhumane treatment she was subjected to in front of her children and the public after the news of the actions of police were publicized.

She listed the late Andrew Felix Kaweesi who was the then Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander and the Attorney General demanding 560 million shillings as compensation for the humiliation she suffered and subsequent illegal detention.

The then High Court Judge Margaret Oumo Oguli compensated her with 170 million shillings in total, the award that she says the government is appealing after three years.

But speaking to Uganda Radio Network, the Attorney General Kiryowa says that the appeal was filed even before he was appointed the Attorney General.

”The appeal was filed in March 2019 long before I joined the chambers. I will read the file all the same and find out what the issue is,” Kiryowa told URN on phone. He added that, “But why is it that she thinks the decision should not be appealed?”

Although our reporter could not independently verify when the Attorney General appealed, the records seen show that the government filed its notice of appeal on March 21st, 2019.

“Take notice that the Attorney General being dissatisfied with the decision of the Hon Justice Oumo Oguli delivered at Kampala on the March 7th 2019 intends to appeal to the Court of Appeal in Uganda against the whole of the decision, reads the notice in part.

According to the Court of Appeal Rules, the notice of appeal is supposed to be filed within 14 days and the grounds of appeal against lower court decisions shall be a filed within sixty days, including the grounds of appeal and security for the costs of the appeal after the notice of appeal has been filed.

The same rules also provide for enlargement of time within which to file appeals if one pleads exceptional circumstances that caused the delay in filing of such an appeal.

But efforts to confirm when the Attorney General filed his Memorandum of Appeal were futile since the Judiciary Spokesperson Jamson Karemani needed time to cross check.

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