IUIU lecturers sue rector for appointing wife and new director Kampala campus

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Two senior lecturers from Islamic University in Uganda-IUIU have sued the rector, Prof. Ismail Simbwa Gyagenda and four others over the appointment of the director Kampala campus and the director for public relations. Also sued is IUIU, University secretary, Dr. Adnan Ali Adikata, and the rector’s wife, Dr. Wardah Mummy Rajab Gyagenda.

The petitioners including Dr. Farooq Miiro and Dr. Moses Golooba want court to quash the appointment of Dr. Adikata as the director of IUIU Kampala campus and senior lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication.  They are also challenging the actions of the Rector Ismail Simbwa Gyagenda to appoint his wife Dr. Wardah as the Director of Public Relations, Community Outreach and International Relations and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Development.

It all started after Prof. Gyagenda wrote an email informing staff about his decision to make some personnel transfers and bring in personnel from outside. “I have shared with the rectorship and management the need to build a team that can help us meet our strategic goals with the VRS and some Council Committee members as well as management, I’m making some personnel transfers and bringing in personnel from outside starting July 1st”, reads the email in part. Adding that, ‘Some will commence work in August or later. These staff have a proven work ethic that will add to the good people already with us”.

As a result, the University secretary wrote to the said individuals on June 29th 2021, officially communicating their appointments. “I am authorized to offer you a temporary appointment as Director, Islamic University in Uganda -Kampala Campus and as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication. This appointment is on an initial contract of 3 years and is effective 16th July 2021 subject to the approval of the Appointments Committee,” reads the letter to Adikata signed by the University Secretary Rashid Kinsambwe in part.

The appointments didn’t go down well with the applicants, saying they didn’t comply with provisions on the university statute on staff appointment. The applicants argue that Dr. Adikata and Dr. Wardah ceased to be IUIU staff, they left its employment way back in 2017 when they allegedly neglected and or refused to report to their new duty station as had been assigned.

“That the decision to appoint the 4th respondent/Dr Adikata as the Director for the Islamic University in Uganda-Kampala Campus is unlawful and a blatant violation of the Islamic University in Uganda Act that requires a Director to be elected by members of the faculty or institute from among the Muslim members of the faculty with the approval of the Council”, reads the affidavit of Dr. Golooba in part.

It adds that the decision to appoint Dr Wardah in the contested positions, “is unlawful and in violation of the Islamic University in Uganda Act and the Staff Regulations 2018 require prior approval of the University’s Appointments Committee before the appointment of any person as an academic or administrative staff in the service of the 1st respondent/IUIU”.

According to the applicants, the appointments are also unlawful because the positions were never advertised, which is contrary to the University regulations of 2018. “The 2nd respondent’s/ Rector‘s decision to appoint the 5th respondent/Dr Wardah being his wife in the position of Director of Public Relations, Community Outreach  and International Relations and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics is ultra vires..”

Through their lawyers of Blair and Company Advocates, the applicants also contend that the Rector has no legal authority to appoint academic or administrative staff in the service of the University, and therefore the actions of all the respondents are biased and amount to a direct affront of the law that regulates the institution.

The applicants, whose suit is before the Civil Division of High Court in Kampala want the court to issue them a temporary injunction stopping the implementation of the decision pending the hearing of their main suit to quash the appointments. The Civil Division Registrar Jamson Karemani is yet to allocate the case to a Judge who will fix it for hearing.

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