Telecom Operators and the Uganda Communications Commission, UCC will concurrently appear before the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala for hearing of the suits in which Western youth MP, Mwine Mpaka sued the two parties. The decision was reached at on Wednesday during a Court sitting.
During yesterday’s sitting under Deputy Court Registrar Joy Kabagye, the defendants (MTN, Bank of Uganda and Uganda Communications Commission) represented by their lawyers together with Mwine Mpaka's lawyer, Fox Odoi agreed that both petitions could be heard by the same judge since they all seek the same orders.
Court summoned the accused companies to appear on Monday to lay their defences on the said matter, after the interim application was filed. However, only MTN through their lawyer Yona Tumusingyize was able to present his defence.
During the appearance, Tumusingyize objected the application on grounds that MTN has a number of customers who cannot all suffer because of one incidence which happened to one person out of the 11 million customers. He said while the rights of the applicant have to be looked at, the rights of other subscribers needed to be considered too.
He acknowledged that Mpaka's phone was hacked into but was quick to add that the two suspects Nasser Kigenyi and Henry Magembe in the matter are being prosecuted by the Buganda Road Court.
Meanwhile, Abdul Salaam Waiswa represented Uganda Communications Commission while Bank of Uganda was represented by Barnabas Tumusingize and Eric Mugarura.
The Consolidation was granted by Kabagye and ordered the parties to proceed with the main application which is to be heard on 18th April 2018 before Lady Justice Margaret Oguli Oumo.
The suit stems from late March when Mwine Mpaka claimed that his sim card was hacked into while he was on a foreign trip and that the fraudsters then used his sim card to solicit for mobile money from an unsuspecting person in his phone contacts.
The youthful MP claims that over forty million shillings were collected as a result of the hacking into his sim card.
He consequently sued MTN Uganda, Uganda Communications Commission and Bank of Uganda for failure to regulate mobile money transactions of his sim card when it was hacked into.
Early this month, the MP also filed another application seeking immediate orders to stop the Uganda Communications Commission from continuing with the process of renewal of MTN Uganda's license pending the disposal of the main application which was filed on March 23, 2018.
