Sejusa is still a serving army officer, court rules

Gen David Sejusa, former spy boss

What you need to know:

  • The judgment, if not appealed against, means that President Museveni in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the army top leadership, can redeploy Gen Sejusa, who was at one time at logger heads with government.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the former spy chief, Gen David Sejusa, is still a serving army officer.

A panel of three justices overturned an earlier High Court ruling that had held that Gen Sejusa was no longer a serving army officer.

“The appeal is allowed and we set aside the decision of the High Court,” ruled Justice Christopher Madrama Izama, who wrote the February 8 lead judgment.

The other justices were Monica Mugyeni and Irene Mulyagonja.

“In the premises, I would allow ground 2 of the appeal. The determination of ground 2 of the appeal is sufficient to resolve the appellant’s appeal.  Having found that there was no decision that   was amenable to judicial review.  I find that the rest of the grounds do not need to be considered ,” he added.

The judgment, if not appealed against, means that President Museveni in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the army top leadership, can redeploy Gen Sejusa, who was at one time at logger heads with government.

The decision of the court arose after the Attorney General appealed against an earlier ruling of the then High Court judge, Margaret Oumo-Oguli.

Justice Oguli had in 2016 held that Gen Sejusa had been constructively discharged by the conduct of his employer by denying him salary and refusing to deploy him and that as such be treated as a civilian.

The judge had further ordered government to pay Gen Sejusa all his salary arrears, allowances, terminal benefits and Shs750m as damages for humiliating and violating his rights through arrest, detention, prosecution and denial of bail before the General Court Martial. 

“UPDF’s not paying Sejusa his allowances, the harassment and humiliation can only be atoned by damages,” Justice Oguli ruled then.

The judge also found the conduct of the UPDF was discriminative when they continued to retire other officers at the same rank and below that of Gen Sejusa but refused to consider his application to retire yet he is of advanced age and suffered injuries during the bush war.