The High Court of Uganda has directed Horeb Services Uganda Limited to pay Shs250 million as general and exemplary damages over the death of a migrant worker.
Last year, Desire Namale dragged Horeb Services and its director, Ezra Mugisha over the death of her mother, Milly Namutamba.
In August 2018, through Horeb Services Uganda, Namutamba left Uganda to work as a domestic service worker in Saudi Arabia. At the time of leaving the country, Namutamba was in perfect health and was subjected to a medical check-up by the Horeb Services Uganda.
While in Saudi Arabia, Namale kept in constant communication with her mother for about five months before she unceremoniously went silent. After one month of no communication, she got worried and contacted her relatives, including the Director of Horeb Services, who advised her to go to their offices to raise the matter.
She kept frequenting their company for two years, seeking to know what had happened to her mother, but the company was non-responsive. Later on, in September 2022, her uncle, through sources unknown to her, discovered that her mother had died.
Namale and her uncle approached Horeb Services’ offices, and on this occasion, the respondents confirmed the death of her mother and promised to formally update them on the cause of death, which they never did.
In his ruling, High Court judge, Justice Boniface Wamala declared that Horeb Services Ltd and its director violated Namale Desire’s mother’s right to life, as enshrined in Uganda’s Article 22 of the Constitution of Uganda.
The court held that a licensed recruitment company is obligated to assume full and complete responsibility for all acts of its officials, employees and representatives done in connection with recruitment and placement.
“That being the case, it is wrong on the part of Horeb Services Ltd to argue that the responsibility over Namutamba Milly lay against the other stakeholders and not on themselves. The legal framework clearly indicates that Horeb Services Ltd bore the primary responsibility over the safety and life of the deceased migrant worker,” he ruled.
He further ruled that Horeb Services Ltd was also the entity vested with locus to enforce against any breach of the agreed terms against either the foreign recruitment agency or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Court ordered that Horeb Services Ltd and its director shall pay to the Namale Desire and her uncle a sum of Shs200 million as general damages and Shs50 million in exemplary damages and bare costs arising from that matter.
