The High Court has delivered one of the strongest judicial condemnations ever issued against MTN Uganda, ordering the telecommunications giant to pay more than Shs2.3 billion to its former senior manager, Richard Mwami, after finding that the company maliciously orchestrated his prosecution despite knowing he had actually uncovered—not committed—the massive mobile money fraud that rocked the company more than a decade ago.
In a blistering 26-page judgment delivered on June 26, 2026, Acting High Court Judge Justice Bonny Isaac Teko ruled that MTN Uganda deliberately instigated criminal proceedings against Mwami using an illegally obtained confession, ignored evidence that had cleared him, and effectively turned the whistleblower into what another judge had previously described as a “sacrificial lamb.”
The court awarded Mwami Shs1.809 billion in special damages, Shs400 million in general damages, and Shs100 million in exemplary damages, bringing the total compensation to Shs2.309 billion, excluding interest and legal costs. Interest will accrue at 10 percent annually until the entire amount is paid.
However, while MTN was held fully liable, the Attorney General escaped responsibility after the court ruled that the claim against the government had been filed outside the statutory two-year limitation period applicable to suits against the State.
From fraud detector to criminal suspect
The case traces its roots to December 2011 when Mwami was serving as MTN Uganda’s Senior Manager for Public Access after previously working as Senior Manager for MTN Village Phone.
According to the judgment, it was Mwami himself who first discovered suspicious transactions on MTN’s Fundamo mobile money platform and alerted senior company executives, including Themba Khumalo and Anthony Katamba.
His report ultimately led to police investigations after MTN reported an estimated Shs16 billion loss from its mobile money system.
To establish what had happened, MTN commissioned international audit firm Grant Thornton to conduct a forensic investigation.
That report, dated January 12, 2012, proved crucial to the court’s decision.
Justice Teko noted that the forensic audit did not implicate Mwami in any way.
Instead, the report identified other individuals believed to have participated directly or indirectly in the fraud while completely excluding the man who had reported it.
Despite possessing that exculpatory report, the court found that MTN later pursued criminal proceedings against Mwami based solely on a confession extracted from another accused person under circumstances that were eventually declared unlawful.
Court finds MTN became the “moving force” behind prosecution
A central question before the court was whether MTN could be held liable when criminal charges had formally been brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Justice Teko answered that question emphatically.
He held that liability does not depend on who signs the charge sheet but on who effectively sets the prosecution in motion.
“The person liable is the complainant in whose instigation the proceedings are due,” the judge observed while relying on earlier appellate authorities.
The court found that police investigations and the Grant Thornton forensic audit had ended without implicating Mwami.
More than a year later, however, the only evidence linking him to the fraud suddenly emerged in the form of a charge-and-caution statement made by another accused person, Patrick Ssentongo.
That statement, the court noted, became the sole foundation for Mwami’s arrest and prosecution.
Confession declared illegal
Justice Teko relied heavily on findings made during Mwami’s criminal trial before Justice Lawrence Gidudu.
During a trial-within-a-trial, Ssentongo testified that while he was being interrogated, an MTN employee identified as Mr. Mugisha allegedly handed notes to a police officer, who then wrote summaries on a board directing him on what to say.
Ssentongo further testified that MTN’s then Company Secretary, Anthony Katamba, became angry after he requested access to a lawyer before making any statement.
Justice Gidudu eventually ruled that the confession had been obtained involuntarily, illegally and below acceptable investigative standards.
In the present civil case, Justice Teko said MTN failed to rebut Ssentongo’s evidence.
Neither Mugisha nor Katamba testified to explain why they were allegedly present during the interrogation.
Equally damaging, the company’s own witness failed to produce evidence supporting claims that the confession emerged from a separate fraud investigation.
“There was therefore no legitimate investigative foundation from which the statement could have emerged,” Justice Teko concluded.
“Sacrificial lamb”
Perhaps the strongest language in the judgment appears where Justice Teko revisited Justice Gidudu’s earlier findings.
Rather than being one of the fraudsters, Mwami had actually been the employee who uncovered the theft.
The judge observed that the forensic audit had cleared him entirely.
Justice Gidudu had previously described him as “a sacrificial lamb” and stated that he should have been appearing in court as a prosecution witness rather than standing in the dock as an accused person.
Justice Teko agreed with that assessment.
The court concluded that MTN knowingly prosecuted someone whose innocence had already been established by its own investigations.
No reasonable grounds for prosecution
The judgment carefully dismantles MTN’s argument that it had reasonable grounds to suspect Mwami.
Justice Teko applied the legal test of whether an ordinary prudent person would have believed Mwami was probably guilty based on the information available at the time.
The answer, he held, was plainly no.
The court noted that:
- MTN possessed a forensic audit clearing Mwami.
- Police investigations had not implicated him.
- Criminal proceedings against six other suspects had already begun without him.
- The only evidence against him was an illegally obtained confession.
- MTN’s own employees were allegedly involved in obtaining that confession.
“No ordinary prudent and cautious person,” Justice Teko ruled, “could have honestly believed” that Mwami was guilty.
Malice inferred from conduct
The court also found overwhelming evidence of malice.
Justice Teko pointed to several troubling circumstances.
Mwami was arrested more than one year after investigations had concluded.
The arrest was executed by the Violent Crimes Crack Unit, an elite police unit usually deployed against armed robbers and murder suspects.
The judge described the use of such a specialised unit against a senior corporate executive in a commercial fraud case as “wholly disproportionate.”
The court further observed that by then Mwami had secured employment with Mobile Money Africa Ltd and had associations with EzeeMoney, a company that had initiated legal proceedings against MTN over alleged anti-competitive conduct.
The timing of those events, coupled with the sudden decision to prosecute him using the disputed confession, provided what the court described as compelling circumstantial evidence of an improper motive.
Justice Teko ultimately concluded that MTN had used the criminal justice system for purposes other than the legitimate administration of justice.
Career destroyed
The court accepted evidence that the prosecution devastated Mwami’s professional career.
Following his arrest, the Bank of Uganda reportedly classified him as a reputational risk.
His employer, Mobile Money Africa Ltd, subsequently terminated his employment.
The court held that this dismissal flowed directly from the criminal proceedings initiated against him.
Justice Teko therefore awarded compensation for 28 months of lost salary amounting to Shs1.575 billion, together with housing and medical benefits, although he rejected claims relating to a company vehicle, performance bonuses and legal fees because those specific losses had not been sufficiently proved.
Public humiliation
Beyond the financial loss, the court described the immense personal suffering endured by Mwami.
The judgment records that he spent seven days on remand at Luzira Prison, remained under restrictive bail conditions for more than two years and could not freely travel abroad.
He also missed his children’s school events in Kenya.
National newspaper coverage branded him as a corporate fraudster before any court had determined his guilt, causing lasting reputational damage.
Justice Teko observed that for over two years Mwami carried the stigma of criminal charges brought and maintained in bad faith by his former employer.
The court awarded Shs400 million in general damages to compensate him for the reputational harm, emotional distress, loss of liberty and destruction of his professional career.
Punitive damages meant to send message
Justice Teko also found that ordinary compensation alone would not adequately address MTN’s conduct.
He ruled that exemplary damages were justified because the company had allegedly weaponised the criminal justice system against one of its own employees despite possessing evidence clearing him.
The court emphasised the wider public interest in discouraging powerful corporations from misusing criminal prosecutions to settle commercial or employment disputes.
Accordingly, the judge awarded Shs100 million in exemplary damages, saying there was a strong need to deter similar conduct in the future.
Final orders
In the final orders, the High Court entered judgment solely against MTN Uganda.
The Attorney General was removed from the proceedings because the claim against the government had been filed outside the applicable statutory deadline.
MTN was ordered to pay:
- Shs1.80975 billion in special damages;
- Shs400 million in general damages;
- Shs100 million in exemplary damages;
- 10 percent annual interest from the date of judgment until payment in full; and
- The full costs of the suit.
The ruling marks a dramatic conclusion to a legal battle that began with one employee exposing an alleged Shs16 billion fraud, only to find himself prosecuted years later.
In a judgment notable for its unusually forceful language, the High Court concluded that rather than protecting a whistleblower who had exposed wrongdoing, MTN Uganda transformed him into the face of the very fraud he had helped uncover—a course of conduct the court found to be malicious, unsupported by reasonable cause, and deserving of both substantial compensation and punitive sanction.
