A High Court judge has ordered Monitor Publications Ltd, the publishers of Daily Monitor, to pay Shs450m to Judiciary Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimina as compensation for writing defamatory stories about him.
The stories date to between 2012 and 2015 when Bigirimina was still the PS in the Office of the Prime Minister. Daily Monitor made extensive reporting on the scandal in the OPM office that led to loss of millions of shillings in taxpayers’ money. Britain later suspended all financial aid to Uganda over the corruption scandal.
According to Justice Musa Ssekaana, he has reviewed the evidence adduced and the submissions of all parties and resolved that the plaintiff suffered damage to his reputation.
“This court is mindful of the fact that the defamatory statements were made in several publications and at different times, therefore I grant general damages amounting to 350,000,000/= to compensate for the damage caused on the Plaintiff’s reputation, distress and humiliation the defamatory statements had on his dignity as a Permanent Secretary. The damage to his reputation was far reaching in Uganda and outside Uganda,” he ruled on December 10.
Whereas Bigirimana had sought Shs900m as exemplary damages, Justice Ssekaana ruled that this sum is equally high and excessive.
“The punitive damages are awarded to serve as a punishment to the defendant so that they do not repeat the same mistake or action, an award of Shs100m is appropriate as exemplary damages to punish the defendants and discourage them from publishing any further defamatory statements about the Plaintiff in such a reckless and negligent manner,” he ruled.
The judge also ordered Daily Monitor to publish an apology to Bigirimana.
“In regards to the order directing the publication of an apology, the 1st defendant ordered to publish an apology be published with equal publicity as the impugned defamatory publications for a period of two weeks atleast 2 times a week,” he ruled.
“As held in the case of Hon. Rebecca Kadaga vs Richard Tumusiime & 2 ors HCCS No. 56 of 2013, this court also issues a permanent injunction restraining the defendants jointly or severally by themselves, their agents and assignees from publishing further defamatory statements about the Plaintiff,” he added.