{UAH} Uganda Embassy in US wasting money on useless legal battles?

        After reading the Observer article about alleged corruption in the Uganda embassy in Washington, DC (http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/39567-uganda-embassy-in-us-under-investigation-for-corruption)

I quickly realized that the embassy might be wasting some that money in fighting one of clients! For almost a year, the embassy has been waging a relentless but totally useless battle against an NGO based in Arizona (African Children's Charities).  They started by tarnishing my client's name in the New Vision.  After we had defeated them in administrative channels, they resorted to court battles in Arizona.  And we won. Then they went to Uganda courts, and we winning there too.  Then they came back to US courts and we are about to beat them again.  But they also turning to government channels in Kampala (IGG, Min of Gender, Min of Justice, Min of Foreign Affairs, etc) and feeding them lies in hope of getting their help. One embassy official even lied to court in the US that the President has been asking about this child...really? I asked him how the president would find time to call a mid-level diplomat to ask about a child that is being well taken care of when there are thousands of orphans in Uganda but he didn't answer.

      Our story is simple (since the embassy has already revealed everyone's name in the media, I can also use names): several years ago, Joan Nakibuuka saw an orphan with a deformed back and put his story in the New Vision seeking help.  My clients responded to the story and started giving Joan money to care for all the child's needs, including healthcare at Mulago.  But Mulago could not treat s hump that he'd developed because untreated TB, so my clients flew him to the US for an operation. At this time (2013) Joan went court in Nabweru and got a Care Order after lying to the Probation office that she had been using her own funds to care for the child. Since he was a minor, the hospital required an adult to be with him.  When Joan got to the hospital, she spent more time in her room and let the kid roam in the hospital.  So they were kicked out and ended up at home of one of the directors of my client. Even there, Joan spent more time on the internet and the phone than looking after the child. She was given a calling card to call Uganda but she preferred calling directly, which let to huge phone bills for my clients. When they cut off international calling, she got upset and left the director's home and knocked on neighbors homes until police came.  According to the police report, she informed police that she did not want to go back to my clients. The police suggested that she gets a temporary shelter and call the Uganda embassy.  The embassy took the 2013 Care Order to the State Department and local police which took the child from my clients towards the end of last year. In January, I went to Uganda to gather more facts and found out how the embassy had been lying to media.  In Kampala, I also found emails from the embassy plotting how to use the New Vision "because they would sensationalize the story".  In the emails, the embassy even offered to draft stories to plant in the New Vision.  Indeed, several articles came out in the New Vision lying about the story, the latest appearing in May. 

        Though Joan had told my clients that the child had to known relatives, on my trips to Kampala, I met a lady that said she was the grandmother of the child.  I also met a man that claimed to be his father.  We took him for DNA tests and they came back negative. Meantime, he went to Court and discharged Joan's 2013 Care Order. Armed with this information, we decided to the child's home district (Mpigi) get a Care Order in favor of my clients (for 3 years) since the alleged father was actually not the father. Meantime, the embassy was waging an expensive legal battle in US Courts to return to the child to Uganda even if he was still undergoing treatment.  By this time, the doctors had found he could not hear and recommended surgery .  He got the operation in July but one ear was so damaged from the prolonged neglect that he would need special hearing aids.  As my clients worried about caring for the child, they also had to worry about the embassy fighting them!  Between February 2015 and today, the embassy has made several trips to courts Arizona. One of the Uganda diplomats, Dickson Ogwang, is a lawyer (he used to work for the DPP).  On several occasions, he has misled US courts about Uganda law such that I waste time to correct court records. He has also flown to Uganda and misled Ugandan courts about proceedings in the US.  Recently he convinced a magistrate to send summons to my clients to bring the child to Uganda as a witness yet Ugandan law does not require summons to someone outside the jurisdiction of the court.  In court, he claims to represent the government of Uganda.  The court appearances in Ugandan courts are strange for a US based diplomat since government matters are handled by the Solicitor General.

The embassy and Joan have also presented forged Interpol documents but when we took them for verification at Interpol, they gave us a written denial!  

The question is: with all the needy children in Uganda, why does the embassy waste taxpayer money to take this child from the care that he needs? According to the website of the Ministry of Gender, in Uganda, eleven percent of children under 18 are orphans (http://ovcmis.mglsd.go.ug/.  Why doesn't the embassy spend money on helping them?  Instead of going to the UNAA convention on time, I have had to delay my departure because I have to go to court against the embassy on Sept 3rd and possibly the 4th of September!!

 For a faster response please contact me at 415.789.6427

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