Saudi Arabia Court Awards UGX 270m To Ugandan Domestic Worker Judith Nakintu After Losing Her Kidney

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Nile Treasure Gate Directors To Face 15 Years In Prison Over Judith Nakintu's Case Whose Kidney Was Removed In Saudi Arabia

Judith Nakintu Who Lost Her Kidney In Saudi Arabia

By Uganda Online Media

Kampala: A court in Saudi Arabia has awarded Judith Nakintu, a Ugandan domestic worker Shs 270 million who lost her right kidney while at King Fahad hospital in Jeddah.

Nakintu has been in the news for losing a kidney in a scheme allegedly collaborated by the proprietors of the Kiwatule based Nile Treasure Gate, a labor export firm, and her employer Saad Dhafer Mohamed Al-Asmari.

However, Nile Treasure through their lawyer, Atanansi Nsubuga, insists that Nakintu was involved in an accident on March 20, 2020, less than four months after leaving Uganda. 

Nakintu lost her kidney when she was admitted after getting involved in an accident with her employer Saad Dhafer Mohamed Al-Asmari.

The Saudi court led by Ibrahim Mohammed Hamud Al-Mahyani found Dhafer culpable for causing the accident in which, Nakintu was injured. “…convicting Saad Dhafer Mohamed Al-Asmari of the error in the accident by 100 percent. Obligating the defendant, Saad Dhafer Mohamed Al-Asmari, to hand over to the plaintiff, Nakintu Judith, the indemnity for the aforementioned injury an amount of 271,450 Riyals,” the ruling by Al-Mahyani reads in part

Nsubuga explained that they have since been following the issue and even sued Dhafer to compensate Nakintu until the court delivered its verdict on January 30, 2022, awarding the victim Shs 270m minus legal costs. A traffic report from Saudi Arabia translated by Makerere University college of education and external studies shows that Nakintu was at the time of the accident driving with Dhafer. 

However, according to the Deputy National Coordinator Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Agnes Igoye, a medical report was forged in Saudi Arabia saying the victim was fine but the second check-in Uganda indicated her kidney had been removed which paralyzed her whole body.

Furthermore, Police inquiries also established that suspects forged medical reports to hoodwink the victim and her family that all her internal organs were intact which was contrary to the tests that were done in Uganda.

According to Igoye, there are people in Uganda collaborating with people in Saudi Arabia further noting that this is a syndicate thus putting the lives of Ugandans at risk.

However, Nile Treasure Gate Company denied the allegations of conspiring to traffic Judith Nakintu, 38, to Saudi Arabia where she purportedly lost her kidney.

Accounts by Nakintu’s family implicate the Kiwatule based Nile Treasure Gate Company for enlisting and sending her to Jeddah on December 12, 2019, as a housemaid where she was mistreated for several months and later repatriated with a missing right kidney.

“We have several reservations regarding the media reports about the incident that preceded the victim’s miserable condition. We would like to categorically state that Ms. Judith Nakintu was involved in a motor accident in Saudi Arabia. The subsequent stroke paralyzed her left side, NOT the extraction of her kidney as stated,” reads part of the company’s response.

“First of all, the statement that the kidney was extracted when Ms. Nakintu’s employer took her to the hospital to get a COVID-19 vaccination was in March 2020, yet the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved in December of the same year discredits the whole story.” the company added.

The statement further noted that Ms. Nakintu was involved in an accident on 1st March 2020, and in the same accident were seven other people, including her employers, and their children (according to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Police Traffic Report in Jeddah, which was received and translated by Makerere University.

The company also revealed that several days after, they got information that two children of Nakintu’s employer died instantly, and fortunately Nakintu survived with severe injuries and a blood clot, according to doctors at King Fahad Hospital in Saudi Arabia where she was admitted for over a year.

Further, the company said the Hospital’s report also showed multiple external bruises, bruises of the lungs with a simple bloody air gathering inside, liver bruises, thrombosis of the right kidney artery, pelvic fractures, and pelvic bone injuries which Makerere University translated.

According to Nakintu’s family, they contacted the company which helped them liaise with their bedridden daughter, but after some time, the company cut off communication channels thus igniting suspicions.

But the company blamed the communication gaps between Kampala and Jeddah on the global COVID-19 pandemic as both cities were under lockdown. “But we always tried to give timely updates to the family until August 2020 when some family members suspected foul play in their daughter’s condition,” the company said.

The company claims that after her discharge in April 2021, they paid Nakintu’s accommodation, their caretaker partner in Jeddah, adding that following pressure from the Embassy in Saudi Arabia and family, they bought an air ticket and flew her back to Uganda after raising Shillings 30 million in compassionate financial welfare support.

Upon her return, Nakintu was evacuated from Entebbe Airport by the company accompanied by her family members to Mulago National Referral Hospital for medical examination where two different scans were conducted which indicated different reports.

Earlier this week, the Director of Public Prosecutions preferred charges related to human trafficking against the four directors of Nile Treasure Gate including Abubaker Kato, Muhammad Mariam, Salma Muhammad, and Ali Hassan who are currently detained at Jinja Road Police station and are yet to be arraigned before courts of law.

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