Senior Reporter
The greater Kabale Tea nursery bed operators have tasked City lawyer Patrick Kiconco Katabazi of Pathway Advocates to give them accountability for the money that was meant to pay them from NAADS.
According to the Auditor General’s report of 2021/2022, NAADs advanced Sh39bn shillings to Kiconco’s law firm to pay off tea farmers who had sued the government for having not bought their tea seedling thus incurring losses which were later settled out of court for the government to compensate them.
However, some farmers claim not to have received their payments from Counsel Kiconco whom they had hired to demand the government on their behalf.
In the meeting that was held yesterday at Kabale district Rukiiko hall between Tea Nursery bed operators, district authorities, and their lawyers from three districts of Rukiga, Kabale, and Rubanda demanded transparency and accountability from Katabazi which will help them to know how much they demand from the government.
Farmers claim that they only received 37% of the money they were supposed to be paid and they are demanding 63% but they incurred a lot of expenses and some are still in debt.
In a heated meeting, the operators told lawyer Kiconco not to take them as illiterates and told him to better pay or take legal action.
They added that they were supposed to give Counsel Katabazi 30% of the money they demanded but instead, he took more than what was agreed.
They also say that they were forced to sign documents before reading through and from there he stopped picking up their calls.
On his part, Lawyer Kiconco Patrick Katabazi said that the COVID-19 lockdown affected the smooth flow of their matters because meetings were not allowed.
