Commissioner Jacklet files petition to Justice Minister, Attorney General against Wangadya frustrating her work, Unorthodox Operations at UHRC
There is a bitter internal war raging on at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), involving Chairperson madam Mariam Wangadya and most of the Commissioners.
This website has since established that some Commissioners fault Wangadya for reportedly running the Commission using dictatorial tendencies, and intentionally disregarding or sideling those who refuse to act according to her whims.
Among the Commissioners who don’t disapprove of Wangadya’s Modus Operandi is former Sheema District Woman Member of Parliament, Hon. Jacklet Atuhaire Rwabukukuru.
Jacklet Atuhaire (R)
According to sources privy to these internal wars at UHRC, the rift between Wangadya and Jacklet has since escalated to adverse levels, to the extent that the two no longer see eye to eye.
Jacklet faults Wangadya for not only frustrating her duties as a Commissioner at UHRC but also tarnishing her name by making defamatory statements against her in public.
Following the differences between them, Jacklet has since petitioned the Minister for Justice, Hon. Norbert Mao and Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, beseeching them to intervene in the matter, short of which she will be left with no choice but to drag Wangadya to courts of law.
In her petition dated July 11, 2023, through her lawyers of M/S Otto Edward Mackmot & Company Advocates, Jacklet accuses Wangadya of among other things, refusing or neglecting to pay rent for her offices, yet she pays rent for office facilities occupied by other Commissioners, something that has never her with no place to execute her duties from.
“Our client hereby informs you that her office has been rendered redundant, without any assignment in the past four months, as their offices were locked for nonpayment of rent, and in that respect, she has been working from home, and yet other Commissioners have been invited on several engagements as the job description dictates. For instance, our client was intentionally left out of the following activities: 17th-19th day of April 2023 tribunal hearing in Arua Regional Office; 24th-26 day of April 2023 tribunal hearing in Fort Portal Regional Office; 18th day of May 2023, breakfast meeting with members of parliamentary human rights committee, among others,” the petition reads in part.
The lawyers add that; “Furthermore, on the 20th day of April 2023, Ms Wangadya, the Chairperson Uganda Human Rights Commission, while presenting the Commissioner’s Report to the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights on the situation of juveniles from Karamoja Sub-Region who recently appeared in the media looking starved and severely malnourished, alleged that our Client (Jacklet) appeared in a meeting with a gun and looking drunk and high on other substances.”
In light of this, the lawyers contend that; “Our client feels offended and aggrieved as her name and reputation has been tarnished in the eyes of the right thinking members of society.”
The lawyers thus call for the immediate intervention of the Justice Minister and Attorney General in the prevailing situation before the Client considers seeking legal redress in the matter.
Madam Wangadya has not commented this matter.
