After a bruising 14-year legal battle, the Industrial Court has ruled that Stanbic Bank Uganda unlawfully dismissed a former employee who was accused of negligently authorising a fraudulent Sh75 million withdrawal, ordering the banking giant to compensate her with more than Sh40 million plus interest.
In a judgment delivered on June 16, 2026, Justice Anthony Wabwire Musana found that Stanbic Bank failed to prove allegations of gross negligence against former Entebbe Branch Team Leader Customer Service, Elizabeth Nyasuna, and violated its own disciplinary procedures before throwing her out of employment.
The court described the bank’s disciplinary process as fundamentally flawed and concluded that Nyasuna’s dismissal in July 2012 was both procedurally and substantively unfair.
Fired Over Sh75 Million Withdrawal
The dispute stemmed from a controversial transaction on April 23, 2012, when a customer withdrew Sh75 million from Stanbic Bank’s Entebbe branch.
At the time, Nyasuna was acting in a managerial capacity while serving as Team Leader Customer Service.
Following the transaction, she was arrested, detained overnight by police, suspended and later dismissed for alleged gross negligence after bank investigators concluded that she had approved the withdrawal without carrying out sufficient due diligence.
The bank argued that the customer’s account carried a “No Debit” restriction and that Nyasuna had failed to interrogate the customer or verify the transaction in the banking system before authorising payment.
But the court found glaring holes in the bank’s case.
No Written Charges, No Proper Hearing
Justice Musana faulted Stanbic for failing to provide Nyasuna with a formal written notice outlining the allegations she faced before summoning her to a disciplinary hearing.
The court noted that although Stanbic’s own disciplinary procedures required issuance of a written disciplinary hearing notification form detailing the accusations and employee rights, no such document was ever produced.
The judge further found that Nyasuna was given inadequate time to prepare her defence and that the bank could not prove she had been informed of her rights to representation, calling witnesses or challenging evidence.
“In our view, the Respondent does not pass the Ebiju threshold,” the court ruled, referring to established legal standards governing fair disciplinary proceedings.
Court Questions Missing Evidence
Perhaps most damaging to Stanbic’s defence was the absence of records from the disciplinary hearing itself.
The court observed that Stanbic failed to produce minutes from the hearing and did not call any witness who actually sat on the disciplinary committee.
Instead, the bank relied largely on testimony from its fraud investigator, who admitted that his role was limited to conducting investigations and that he never participated in the disciplinary hearing.
Without minutes or testimony from disciplinary panel members, the court said there was no evidence showing that Nyasuna had been confronted with the allegations or that the accusations were ever properly tested.
“The Respondent has not discharged the burden of having proven the Claimant’s gross negligence to any degree,” Justice Musana ruled.
Bank Blamed for Leaving Employee Overwhelmed
In another stinging observation, the court noted that Nyasuna had been left running the Entebbe branch under difficult circumstances and was effectively carrying responsibilities beyond her substantive role.
The judgment highlighted evidence that she had frequently been assigned multiple supervisory duties without additional remuneration or adequate support.
The court further observed that the fraud at the centre of the case allegedly originated from transactions involving the bank’s own Head Office suspense account.
“The Claimant was left to run the entire Entebbe branch single-handedly and was placed in a vulnerable, overburdened position,” the court said. “In these circumstances, the Respondent’s claim of gross negligence for a fraud that originated from its own Head Office suspense account would be unfair.”
Sh40 Million Award
Having declared the dismissal unlawful, the court awarded Nyasuna several remedies, including:
- Sh1.5 million as a statutory penalty for denial of a fair hearing;
- Sh2.3 million for unpaid suspension benefits;
- Sh6.8 million in severance pay;
- Sh1.5 million in salary in lieu of notice; and
- Sh27.8 million in general damages.
The total award exceeds Sh40 million, excluding interest that has been accruing since 2012 on some components of the compensation package.
14 Years Later, Vindication
The judgment marks the end of one of the longest-running employment disputes in Uganda’s banking sector, with Nyasuna spending more than a decade fighting to clear her name after being linked to a fraud investigation that saw her arrested and publicly associated with financial misconduct.
In a sharp rebuke to one of Uganda’s biggest commercial banks, the Industrial Court concluded that while Stanbic may have suffered financial loss, it failed to demonstrate that Nyasuna’s conduct caused that loss or amounted to gross negligence warranting dismissal.
The ruling now leaves Stanbic facing not only a hefty compensation bill but also renewed scrutiny over how financial institutions handle internal fraud investigations and employee disciplinary processes.
