Parliament’s Director Communication, Chris Obore, sent on forced Leave

Kampala, Uganda: As the weekend rolled on with many events in the city, journalist and former Daily Monitor Investigative Reporter, cum Director Communications, Parliament of Uganda was sent packing.

We have established that the ‘motor mouthed” Chris Obore was sent on a forced five leave, despite his pending court injunction.

Clerk to Parliament, Jane Kibirige in communication dated September 18, 2019, and copied to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanya, Deputy Clerks, Director Human Resource and Director Finance instructed Obore to vacate office for an accumulated five year leave.

who is being investigating by the office of IGG for what they described as “illegal” appointment, of the top parliament job, had recently secured a court injunction blocking parliament from sacking him.

The ombudsman noted that Obore’s appointment as Director Communication was illegal and done in contravention with the Parliamentary Service (Staff) Regulations, 2001.

Kibirige had earlier in a March 5, 2019 letter revealed to Obore that his contract would be terminated, due to the findings of illegal recruitment, prompting him, (Obore) to seek an interim injunction to block the Parliamentary Commission from terminating his services.

Though court granted Obore’s wish, the Parliamentary Commissioned appealed the decision.

Background 

The Inspectorate of Government started investigating Obore’s recruitment after receiving information from a whistle-blower that he didn’t meet the requirements for the job as advertised by parliament.

According to the 2015 advert by the Parliamentary Commission, the applicants for the job of Director of CPA were expected to have a minimum of ten years’ experience in Public Service, degree in mass communication, communication studies, journalism or arts with communication and public relations and a master’s degree.

By the time Obore got the job in question, he had a bachelor’s degree of mass communication from Islamic University in Uganda and lacked the prerequisite experience since he had never worked in public service. SM News Uganda established that over time, Obore has been studying and has since acquired more papers.