Ugandan President Museveni has terminated the appointment of Ms Juliet Namuddu, the director of education and social services at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).
In a March 25 letter addressed to the chairperson of the Education Service Commission which this publication has seen, Mr Museveni states: “Information has been brought to my attention that she (Ms Namuddu) is one of the former Directors of KCCA that I had advised shouldn’t be reappointed due to the complaints I had received. I instead advised the positions of some directors be advertised.”
He, however, didn’t reveal any of the complaints or the reason for the termination.
At the end of last year, the President appointed Ms Namuddu on a three-year contract as the director of education and social service at KCCA. The contract would be renewed at the end of the three years.
When contacted yesterday, Ms Namuddu said: “I can confirm that it is true, I have been informed that my contract has been terminated but I don’t know for what reason because I haven’t committed any crime or anything wrong to the best of my knowledge.”
She added: “I haven’t yet received my letter but I am very aware that my termination was made and there is a termination letter that I will be receiving soon so I am waiting to get it, to understand what is in there. But I don’t know why my contract has been terminated when I was just been appointed a few weeks ago, following a thorough process of being appointed, going through interviews and so on.”
Ms Namuddu, who could not go into detail of her contract termination, has since appealed to the Public Service Commission against her “illegal termination” and hopes to get a response soon.
“I am appealing against the illegal and irregular termination of service based on the fact that I was not given a fair hearing under the law (Art 28 and 173 of the Constitution of Uganda),” the May 11 appeal addressed to the chairperson of the Public Service Commission, reads in part.
It added: “…I wish to state that at no one time did I fail to perform my duties and no omission or error was brought to my attention. Furthermore, all my Performance Appraisals can be accessed through my Supervisors to confirm the above.”
It further read: “I would be privileged to have the issues that has caused the termination of my three-year contract which started in December 2022.”
Sources in KCCA, who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the termination of Ms Namuddu’s contract may be due to her role in the fight against the theft of school land and corruption in Kampala.
Mr Asuman Lukwago, the secretary to the Education Service commission, said he was not aware of the reasons behind the termination of Ms Namuddu’s contract.
“… according to the President’s letter, he says that she is among the people whom he had identified not to appoint. We don’t know what informed that whether because of poor performance or there is any other problem,” Mr Lukwago said.
He, however, noted that the commission has no powers to write back to the President to ask why, saying he (Mr Museveni) has the means to investigate such complaints.
Mr Lukwago said when the commission received the letter, it was sent to the Ministry of Public Service for action to be taken.
Asked who will replace Ms Namuddu, he said: “The replacement exercise is after [we send out] adverts, then people apply and we indicate that former directors of KCCA are not allowed to apply because they are cited as people who generated complaints which the President received.”
The KCCA deputy executive director, Mr David Luyimbazi, said he cannot discuss the matter and referred us to the executive director, who had not responded to our calls and messages by press time.
The chairperson of the Committee on Presidential Affairs, Ms Jessica Ababiku, said the committee has not received any information about the termination and couldn’t comment.
