Captain Obote sues government over pay

A UPDF officer attached to Internal Security Organisation has sued the government for failing to pay his salary for the last 32 years.

Capt Harrison Obote, a former rebel operating in northern Uganda says that on January 13, 1988, he was granted amnesty and later absorbed into the National Resistance Army (now UPDF) as an army officer at the rank of Lieutenant.

According to the documents in the Civil Division of the High Court, Capt Obote worked for the government as an army officer from 1991 when he was commissioned until 2004 when he was deployed by President Museveni to work under the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).

Capt Obote says that while working with ISO, he was given very difficult assignments including tracing the mother and other relatives of Joseph Kony, the leader of Lord’s Resistance Army.

He says that he traced Kony’s relatives who attended some sessions of peace talks between the rebels and the government.

Pictures of some of the sessions are attached to court documents as evidence of his accomplished work.

 He further says that he was later used by the government as a state witness in the treason case against the former coordinator of intelligence services, Gen David Sejusa and six other politicians.

He says that after several complaints to President Museveni over non-payment of his salary, he was in 2010 transferred from ISO to the Anti-Terrorism Department of police when Gen Kale Kayihura was still serving as Inspector General of Police.

Capt Obote says that while working with police, he never received salary.

Obote who says that he was in 2017, promoted to the rank of captain by President Museveni, has been arrested several times on charges of impersonation and tortured whenever he is found wearing an army uniform.

He seeks a declaration by court that he has been subjected to discrimination, torture and inhumane treatment while working for police and ISO.