School ordered to pay shs25 million to father of abducted child

Kabale, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The High Court sitting in Kabale has ordered the management committee of Bishop Asili Nursery Day and Boarding Primary School in Kabale Municipality to pay 25 million Shillings to Tadeo Ruzindantaro as general damages over the disappearance of his daughter.

The case stems from events that began on April 23, 2018, when Ruzindantaro accused the school of releasing his daughter to his estranged wife, Mercy Kirande, without his consent.  In Civil Suit No. 36 of 2022, Ruzindantaro alleges that the school’s head teacher, Sister Margaret Tusiime, conspired with Kirande to unlawfully remove the child (then four years old) from Uganda and smuggle her to South Africa.

According to Ruzindantaro, he and Kirande were married in 2003 but separated in 2010, after which Kirande left the country and abandoned the child. Years later, when Ruzindantaro’s current wife, Innocent Tukamushaba, went to the school to collect the child’s report card as a guardian, a teacher informed her that the pupil had sat only two papers before being taken to South Africa by Kirande, with the help of the head teacher.

Ruzindantaro reported the matter at Kabale Police Station under SD Ref. 57/26/04/2018 and was advised to pursue a civil case. He later filed the case in the High Court, seeking general damages for psychological and emotional torture, as well as the inconvenience caused by the unauthorised removal of his daughter.

But, it later emerged during the court hearing that the child was illegally picked up from school by Kirande’s close friend Phionah Rukundo and remained with her in Kampala. Monica Muhumuza Nzeirwe, Kabale district senior probation and social welfare officer and the office of Family and Child Protection Unit at Kabale central police station also submitted a report before the court stating that the child was recovered from Rukundo’s residence and re-united with Ruzindantaro after five years.

In a report, Muhumuza stated that the child had been taken by Rukundo over mistreatment and harassment by Ruzindantaro and his current wife, Tukamushaba.   Muhumuza also stated that the child was struggling to get school fees and other scholastic materials.

But, in her testimony to the court, the victim trashed the report, saying that she was picked up from school and taken to Rukundo’s home without knowledge of her father until they were reunited in 2023. The child testified that she had no problem with her father, nor did she have any struggle in getting school fees.

The child also testified that she happily stays with Ruzindantaro and is receiving school fees from him to continue with studies at Immaculate Heart Girls School-Nyakibale in Rukungiri district. The child also testified before the court that she was not in touch with the mother all the time she spent with Rukundo.

In a ruling on Wednesday, Justice Karoli Lwanga Ssemogerere, Kabale High Court judge, stated that failure of Rukundo to appear before court by summons diminished any mitigating circumustances in favor of the school management in apportionment of the liability because she failed to appear to explain under what circumstances she took a child who did not belong to her for five years.

Ssemogerere also says that the school management violated Children’s Act, Cap 62, and Section 5(1) (a) of the Children’s act which states that it shall be duty of a parent, guardian or any person having custody of a child to maintain that child and in particular the duty gives a child the right to education.  He also states that the school management deprived Article 31 (4) of the constitution, which indicates that it’s a right and duty of parents to care for and bring up their children.

Justice Ssemogerere ordered the school management to pay 25 million Shillings to Ruzindataro as general damages for the psychological torture he went through when his daughter was abducted. He also ordered the school management to pay half of the expenses Ruzindantaro has incurred during the suit.

Kalenzi Godfrey, the school bursar, Oddo Byamugisha, George Nsaba, school management committee members, and their lawyer, Justus Muhangi of Muhangi Justus & Partners Advocates, who were in court, declined to speak to our reporter about the court ruling.

Ruzindantaro’s lawyers, Timothy Twikirize and Godwin Masereka, welcomed the ruling, saying that it is an eye-opener to school administrators to protect children who are under their care.

Ruzindantaro accused the school administration of using social media to tarnish his reputation.

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