Court awards bereaved family sh124m over Nakivubo channel death
Justice Boniface Wamala, in a judgment delivered on September 30, 2026, found KCCA liable for negligence after ruling that the authority had failed to put in place adequate safety measures around the open drainage channel.
Court awards bereaved family sh124m over Nakivubo channel death
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The High Court has ordered Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to pay sh124m to the family of a woman who drowned in the Nakivubo drainage channel while fleeing from law enforcement officers.
Justice Boniface Wamala, in a judgment delivered on September 30, 2026, found KCCA liable for negligence after ruling that the authority had failed to put in place adequate safety measures around the open drainage channel.
The judge, however, found the deceased, Olive Basemera, 37, 30% contributorily negligent for running towards the stormy waters while attempting to avoid arrest by KCCA enforcement officers.
The court consequently reduced the damages payable to her dependants.
Basemera’s relatives, Rose Nalujja, Patrick Kugonza and Richard Baleke, through their lawyers led by Jude Byamukama, sued KCCA seeking special, general, punitive and aggravated damages, interest and costs arising from her death.
The plaintiffs told court that on August 4, 2017, Basemera was moving along Mukwano Road in Kampala with her property when she was threatened with arrest and confiscation of her goods by KCCA enforcement officers who were pursuing people suspected of hawking.
They alleged that, fearing for her life and trying to protect her property, Basemera fled and fell into the Nakivubo drainage channel near the Railway crossing.
The plaintiffs further alleged that KCCA officers watched as she drowned and failed to rescue her.
KCCA denied the allegations, saying its law enforcement team had been carrying out a trade-order operation in the city and had impounded items found on the streets before taking them to its stores at Nakawa Division.
The Authority stated that while returning to the headquarters from an errand in Nakawa, the officers had no interaction with any person until they reached the Jinja Road traffic lights, where vendors at the junction ran away after seeing the enforcement team.
According to KCCA, its officers later learnt that Basemera had drowned while attempting to cross the Nakivubo channel to avoid arrest.
Justice Wamala noted that the plaintiffs had not produced an eyewitness who saw the actual events leading to Basemera’s fall.
The judge also rejected reliance on a police report which stated that KCCA officers had chased the hawkers along Mukwano Road.
He said the police report only established that the incident had occurred and had been investigated, but did not prove how the incident occurred.
Facts contained in police statements, he added, had to be presented in court by witnesses and subjected to cross-examination before they could be relied upon as evidence.
The judge, however, found that there was sufficient evidence that Basemera was running to avoid arrest when she fell into the open drainage channel.
Justice Wamala said KCCA had a statutory duty under the Kampala Capital City Act to construct and maintain roads and major drains.
He ruled that the duty extended to taking reasonable measures to protect members of the public from foreseeable dangers arising from the authority’s drainage infrastructure.
Justice Wamala rejected KCCA’s argument that open drainage channels were permitted under international practice and that the Nakivubo channel had been constructed in accordance with the 2003 Kampala Drainage Master Plan.
He noted that heavy rains caused storm water and flash floods to overflow the channel and roads, making it foreseeable that a person could mistake the drainage area for a road.
The judge said KCCA should have installed measures such as guard rails, warning signs and public sensitisation about dangerous areas.
He also rejected the argument that previously installed guard rails had been broken or stolen, saying KCCA could not rely on their removal without demonstrating that alternative safety measures had been put in place.
The judge concluded that KCCA had breached its statutory duty by failing to prevent road users from falling into the open drainage channel.
The judge assessed her contributory negligence at 30%.
On damages, the court accepted that Basemera had been earning income from street vending, although the plaintiffs had not produced evidence to support their claim that she earned sh50,000 per day.
Justice Wamala estimated her net daily profit at sh30,000, translating into sh900,000 per month.
Using a working life expectancy up to 60 years, the court calculated her expected lost income at sh248.4m.
After deducting 30% for her contributory negligence and a further 30% representing what she would have spent on herself, the court arrived at sh121,716,000 as damages for loss of dependency.
The amount was apportioned among her five dependents.
Her daughters Grace Komujuni and Mosero Basemera were each awarded sh40.6m, while Rose Nalujja was awarded sh30.516m.
Doritos Kabahika, the deceased’s grandmother, and Mary Kansiime, her sister, were each awarded sh50m.
The court also awarded sh2.2m in special damages for funeral expenses.
The plaintiffs had claimed sh7.2m for burial expenses, but the judge deducted sh5m that KCCA had already contributed towards the funeral.
Justice Wamala further ordered KCCA to pay interest at 10% per annum on the awarded sums from the date of judgment until payment in full.
He also ordered KCCA to pay 70% of the taxed costs of the suit.