Justice Simon Peter Kinobe has dismissed with cost a suit filed by Peter Muramira challenging the appointment of Juliana Kaggwa as the Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Tourism Board.
In his application for review, Muramira told Court that he was among the candidates who responded to the advert to contest for the job. However, he was shocked with the legality, unfairness and biases exhibited during the process of recruiting the new Uganda Tourism Board boss.
In his affidavit, he told Court that with the experience of more than 18 years in managing tourism industry and investment, he was not satisfied with the person announced as the winner insisting that Court should issue a Court Order compelling and directing Uganda Tourism Board to immediately provide him with all written examination script and detailed results for the oral interview process that the Board’s agents based on when conducting the interviews for the said job.
He further wanted the Court to order and direct the tourism board to immediately recommence and complete the process of recruiting the Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Tourism Board in accordance with the principles of transparency, merit, fairness, and in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing public appointments to statutory offices in Uganda.
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However, Bradford Ochieng who was the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism Board protested the application insisting that the Board followed all the procedures required lawfully, transparently, and merit based to reach out to the three suitable candidates and their names were recommended to the line minister to choose one of them to lead the Board.
He explained that after informing the line minister about the need to recruit a new Chief Executive Officer and they were allowed to continue, they advertised the job in the national newspaper and 114 candidates applied for the job
He explained that on 13th March 2025, the Board approved evaluation criteria of written interviews carrying 30%, Oral interviews carrying 70% and written tests were set, administered, and evaluated independently by the Public Service Commission rubbishing the applicant’s submissions.
In his ruling, the presiding judge noted that the applicant does not state the relevant rules and procedures that were disregarded by the Board and did not set out the established norms for public appointments and the alleged principles of transparency.
He added that the applicant generally submited an alleged infraction without demonstrating the requisite standard.
“I find that an applicant cannot choose the criteria upon which he will be interviewed. It would create chaos in an organization if every applicant were to choose their own criteria for an interview. It would also make the award of scores and the determination of the successful applicant impossible and unjustifiable,” the judge stated.
He insisted that the actions of the Board do not amount to illegality within the meaning of the law explaining that the board has the discretion to formulate guidelines in respect of any matter relating to its objectives and functions under the Uganda Tourism Board Act (see Section 31 of the Act).
In June 2025, Kaggwa replaced Lilly Ajarova after the end of her tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Tourism Board.
