The Court of Appeal of Uganda (the “Court”) has reasserted the unfettered right of an employer to terminate an employment relationship without a reason by either giving the employee notice or paying in lieu of notice. Timothy Masembe Kanyerezi and Alex Samson Ntale of M/s MMAKS Advocates represented Bank of Uganda (the “Bank”) in this matter. Whilst the Court dealt with various legal principles in the case, our legal alert is restricted to the question whether “termination” as distinct from “dismissal” requires a reason to be lawful which had remained in flux since the operationalization of the Industrial Court in 2014.

The High Court in Uganda has pragmatically revisited the Landlord - Tenant relationship by faulting a Landlord’s arbitrary use of force to seize a tenant’s trading stock and lock up premises for alleged non-payment of rent without a written Tenancy Agreement in place or a lawful court order. Mr. Isaac Walukagga of M/s MMAKS Advocates represented Ms. Sophie Nakitende (“the Tenant”) in this matter.

The COVD-19 Pandemic has affected various aspects of business world over. This is a compilation of frequently asked questions in relation to the legal implications of COVID-19 in Uganda.

The Kenyan Industrial Court, on 3 December 2012, made an Award against Kenya Airways Limited (“KQ”) requiring that KQ reinstate 447 employees who had been declared redundant on 4 September 2012. A. Brief Facts KQ made a decision to declare 554 employees redundant following an assessment of the financial performance of the company. Some of the employees were offered the opportunity to take advantage of an early retirement scheme and the rest were laid off with the pay packages having been computed.

In June 2012, the High Court of Uganda delivered a ground-breaking judgment regarding interalia execution of mortgages by mortgagees and unconscionable interest rates. 1. Background 1.1 The Borrower Alice Okiror obtained  a loan from  the Global Capital  Save  2004 Limited, against a mortgage of her family home. 1.2 The mortgage deed was signed by the Borrower and by one of the directors of the Lender on behalf of the Lender.

The Supreme Court recently passed a judgment on execution of mortgages, loan agreements, sale of mortgaged property and spousal consent. Background The Respondent’s home was mortgaged to Libyan Arab Uganda Bank in 1993 (before the Land Act 1998 which introduced a requirement for spousal consent for any transaction on family land). The Borrower obtained an overdraft of Ug. Shs. 50,000,000/= secured against Were’s home. Default occurred and the property was sold in 1997 by Tropical Bank.

The Court of Appeal of Uganda delivered a judgment regarding among others, execution of mortgages, the sale of mortgaged property and moveable assets by a mortgagee/chargee, financing of a purchase of mortgaged property by mortgagee and what amounts to fraud and illegality in property sales.

On the 10th July 2007, the Supreme Court of Uganda delivered a ground breaking judgment regarding the nature and effect of powers of attorney especially as regards mortgages, the duty of a mortgagee to a donor of a power of attorney and on a purchaser for value without notice. On account of some of the findings in the case, we recommend it be kept confidential. We set out below a summary of the case.