KCCA fined Shs 124m over vendor Basemera’s death in 2017

What the report says

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has been ordered by Uganda’s High Court to pay Shs 123.916 million to the family of Olive Basemera, a 37-year-old street vendor who drowned in the Nakivubo drainage channel on August 4, 2017. The ruling, reported by The Observer, followed a civil case in which Basemera’s relatives argued that city enforcement officers had endangered her during an operation against street vendors and that KCCA had failed to make the open channel safer.

Justice Boniface Wamala found that the family did not prove officers actually chased Basemera into the channel, but he still held KCCA negligent for failing to protect an exposed drainage area in a city prone to heavy rain and flash flooding. The court said the authority had a duty to take reasonable precautions such as guardrails, warning signs and public awareness measures. KCCA had argued that Basemera was solely responsible because she entered the stormwater channel while trying to avoid arrest.

The judge also said Basemera contributed to the tragedy because she was vending without a licence and tried to evade enforcement, and he assigned her 30 per cent contributory negligence. After adjusting the compensation for dependency loss and funeral expenses, the court set the award at Shs 123.916 million, to be shared among her dependants. The decision adds to recent legal pressure on KCCA over drainage safety and infrastructure maintenance in Kampala, issues that have featured in other court cases and public debates about flood risk and urban safety.