We are proud to share a major victory from the High Court of Uganda. On June 26, 2026, the court ruled in favor of our client, Mr. Richard Mwami, in a landmark case about corporate accountability (Richard Mwami v. Attorney General & MTN Uganda Limited).

Our litigation team, Rachel Asaba and Brian Baine, successfully argued the case under the leadership and guidance of our Senior Partner, David F.K. Mpanga.

The Story Behind the Case

Back in 2011 Mr. Mwami was a senior manager in MTN Uganda Limited who discovered and reported a massive UGX 16 billion fraud happening on the mobile money platform of the company. He reported the matter to the Chief Executive Officer and also made the initial report of the suspected fraud to the Fraud Squad of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Uganda Police Force. An independent forensic audit was carried out, and Mr. Mwami was not listed amongst the people who caused loss to MTN(U)Limited.

Despite being the whistleblower and in the absence of any objective evidence implicating him, Mr. Mwami was unexpectedly arrested over a year later using the notoriously heavy-handed Violent Crimes Crack Unit (VCCU) of the Uganda Police Force. The case against him relied solely upon on the “confession” contained in a charge and caution statement which was extracted from a coworker under duress by the VCCU. That statement was made in the presence of senior company staff.

On 10th December 2015, the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court of Uganda acquitted Mr. Mwami on a submission of no case to answer. This came after the trial judge inquired into the admissibility of the aforementioned charge and caution statement and found that the confession had been obtained through the illegal detention and torture of Mr. Mwami’s co-worker. Quite unusually, the criminal trial judge pointed out that Mr. Mwami was treated like a “sacrificial lamb” and should have been a witness for the prosecution, not the person on trial.

In 2018, Mr. Mwami sued the Attorney General (as representative of the Director of Public Prosecutions) and MTN Uganda Limited in the Civil Division of the High Court for malicious prosecution.

What the Court Decided

On the 26th June 2026, the Honorable Justice Isaac Bonny Teko, the trial judge in the civil trial looked at how Mr. Mwami was treated and made several important legal points:

• Companies can be held responsible: The Court stated that even if the government is technically the formal prosecutor, a private company can still be sued for “malicious prosecution” as the instigator of the prosecution if they were the true driving force behind the institution of the proceedings.

• Clear bad faith: The Court found that the company acted with clear malice and had actuated the proceedings by an improper motive. Court further stated that a company cannot use the police and criminal justice system to punish an innocent whistleblower.

• Issue of limitation: While the case against the government was dropped because of a strict 2-year deadline for suing the state in a claim arising from a tort of malicious prosecution, Court held that a case against the private company was filed well within the standard 6-year deadline for claims as such.

The Penalties Awarded

To make up for Mr. Mwami’s destroyed career, his 7 days spent in prison, and the massive damage to his reputation, the court ordered MTN Uganda to pay him:

• UGX 1,809,750,000 in special damages (to pay back his lost salary and work benefits over 28 months approximately 2.33 years)

• UGX 400,000,000 in general damages (for the severe emotional distress and reputational damage, interference with the liberty under restrictive bail conditions, the professional harm and the unquantified legal and transport expenditure).

• UGX 100,000,000 in exemplary damages (to deter/punish the deliberate misuse of the criminal process by a powerful corporate entity against an individual for collateral commercial ends).

• 10% interest per annum on the special, general and exemplary damages until the full amount is paid, plus court costs.

This judgment sends a clear message: Big corporations cannot weaponize the police system against their own employees. Congratulations to our client and our dedicated legal team for standing up for what is right.

#UgandanLaw #Justice #Whistleblower #CorporateAccountability #LegalVictory #AFMpanga