High court deputy registrar Dr. Mushabe Alex Karooho has on Wednesday morning ordered Uganda Journalists Association (UJA), journalists Eric Yiga and Hannington Kisakye to pay the former judiciary deputy registrar in charge of planning and development Fred Waninda a sum of 10,803,000 as damages and costs in the torture and assault case they lost against him.
Speaking to journalists, UJA lawyer Eron Kiiza assured the trio and requested them not to panic since the appeal is in process in addition to a stay of execution which will be filed to enable the appeal take its course.
He added that, this is part of what human rights advocates go through while fighting those in big and high offices who violate human rights with impunity.
Mukose Arnold Anthony, UJA Secretary for Media Safety and Human Rights urged journalists stay calm since the association is doing it’s best to have its members rights and freedom respected.
He added that, no amount of fear and intimidation will break the leadership’s spirit to fight for the rights of their members.
It should be noted that on the 24th, April, last year, His worship Fred Waninda physically assaulted two journalists and damaged Kisakye’ s camera who was covering the after proceedings moments at the Commercial Court division in Kampala in a case were Waninda was allegedly accused of grabbing land.
The unfortunate incident led to the filing of the case against His worship Waninda however, in August last year high court judge Andrew Bashaija dismissed the matter on grounds that beating journalists is not a human rights violation adding that there was no sufficient evidence adduced by the defense side.
