Court orders Makerere to pay suspended don Shs600 million

Prof Elisam Magara, from the East African School of Library and Information Sciences, was in 2014 suspended by the university administration for allegedly awarding and submitting marks to the head of department without marking students’ scripts. But after the High Court slapped a temporary injunction on MUK from subjecting the don to any disciplinary measures, the university chose to leave him out in the cold, a decision the court says was illegal.

The High Court has ordered Makerere University to pay over Shs600 million to a senior lecturer it suspended for and later refused to ‘deploy’ to service.

Prof Elisam Magara, from the East African School of Library and Information Sciences, was in 2014 suspended by the university administration for allegedly awarding and submitting marks to the head of department without marking the students’ scripts.

Magara had dragged Makerere to court over the matter and in February 2015, the High Court temporarily stopped the university from subjecting him to any form of disciplinary proceedings until a pending dispute was heard and determined.

But in 2016, Magara sued Makerere for denying him employment despite the court directive.

And, in civil suit number 253 of 2016, Makerere University was faulted for defying a court directive to stop disciplinary proceedings against the professor.

In Friday’s ruling, Justice Margaret Oguli Oumo ordered the university to pay Prof Magara Shs250 million as general damages, Shs317.5 million as exemplary damages and Shs50 million as reputation damages.

The court also ordered the university to pay him unpaid half salary arrears from the date of issuing of the temporary order until the date of the ruling and full salary until the final determination of the main case as well as legal costs incurred.

Justice Oguli ruled that the suspension of Prof Magara, ceasing compensation and continued suspension despite the court order, is in breach of the university’s own human resource manual, which limits suspension to 90 days that action amounts to continuing with disciplinary process which is further contempt.

“Prof Magara has led uncontroverted evidence of contempt in the affidavit in support and in rejoinder to the effect that the respondents while aware of the court order, disobeyed the same by continuing to remove the applicant from his office, his projects and caused payments to him to be blocked,