Labour export company directors stare at 15 years jail over Ugandan domestic worker whose kidney was removed in Saudi Arabia

The Chief Magistrates Court in Nakawa, Kampala has remanded to Kitalya prison, the directors  of Nile Treasure Gate, a labour export company that took a Ugandan migrant worker whose kidney was removed while working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Judith Nakintu, was recruited in 2019 by Nile Treasure Gate Company as a housemaid to work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and flew on December 12, 2019.

However, while working as a housemaid Saad Dhafer Mohamed Al-Asmari , Nakintu lost her right kidney in questionable circumstances while at King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Whereas authorities in Saudi Arabia said she had been involved in an accident that left her paralysed, a medical examination and subsequent report done in Uganda indicated that her right kidney was missing.

On Friday afternoon, two directors of the labour export company including Abubaker Sulaiman Kato, 33, Mariam Muhammad, 31; Salma Muhammad, 43 a board member , Ali Hassan Male,18 an agent and Jeniffer Milly Nalunga,32, a supervisor were charged with aggravated trafficking in persons contrary to section 3(1)(a) and 4(i) of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009.

“The group and others still at large between December 2019 and October 2021 between Kampala district of Uganda and Saudi Arabia organized, facilitated, made preparation for sending to receiving or confining Judith Nakintu by means of fraud or deceit or abuse of power of position of vulnerability for purposes of removal of a body part or organ,” the trial magistrate read the charges.

The group was is also accused of recruiting, facilitating and transporting Nakintu to Saudi Arabia for purposes of exploitation that saw the Ugandan girl suffer mutilation and a life-threatening illness.

The two directors of Nile Treasure Gate Company, a board member, agent and a supervisor were also charged with working in a syndicate to facilitate and transfer Judith Nakintu by means of fraud, deceit and abuse of positions of vulnerability for purposes of the girl’s exploitation.

The group denied the charges but the state prosecutors including Doreen Erima and Joseph Kyomuhendo told court that investigations into the matter are still ongoing.

Nakawa Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Akullo Ogwal remanded the group until March, 14, 2022.

During the court process, the directors, agent and supervisor at Nile Treasure Gate Company hid their faces for fear of being recognized by their faces.

Denial

The directors of the company recently denied allegations of conspiring to traffic Nakintu to Saudi Arabia where she lost her kidney.

After being returned home paralysed, Nakintu, a single mother of five narrated that on the fateful day, she was taken to hospital allegedly for a Covid vaccination and that she only woke up hours later with a cut on her lower abdomen.

She later got paralysed.

Whereas she suspected that one of her kidneys had been removed, a medical report from Saudi Arabia indicated he had got an accident that saw her get paralysed.

However, when subjected to another medical examination while in Uganda, it was confirmed that her right kidney had been extracted from her body.

The law

Section 3(1)(a) of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009 says a person who recruits, transports, transfers, harbours or receives a person, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for 15 years.