John Adoyi, PBA Journalism Mentee
A magistrate court in the Ugandan Capital, Kampala has ordered the administrator of ‘Buyanja My Roots’ WhatsApp group to re-add a member that was kicked out without a prior notice.
The directive from the court followed a suit filed by Herbert Baitwababo to challenge his removal from the local WhatsApp group by Administrator Allan Asinguza, after he wrote a letter to Mr. Asinguza asking for an audit report of the “Buyanja My Roots” account that was set up in 2017.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelRuling on Monday, the acting senior magistrate at Makindye Magistrate Court in the East African country, Mr. Igga Adiru said: “It is hereby ordered that the applicant be returned to the ‘Buyanja My Roots’ WhatsApp group. A permanent injunction is also issued restraining the respondent, his agents or his assignees from further infringing on the applicant’s right of association,” Magistrate Adiru ruled.
According to Mr. Baitwababo’s submission to the court and reported by Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper, the Buyanja My Roots WhatsApp group was created by Mr. Allan Asinguza in 2017 to bring together members of the Buyanja Sub-county to contribute towards charity works that include helping people in the county and supporting victims of disasters. According to Mr. Baitwababo, all members agreed on a membership fee which cost 30 thousand Ugandan Shilling (5,500 Naira) which he paid.
Mr. Baitwababo told the court that he was removed from the group on May 17 after he wrote a letter to Mr. Asinguza on May 16, asking for audit report of the Buyanja WhatsApp group’s funds that have been contributed since 2017 and the rules and guidelines governing the group.
He told the court that Mr. Asinguza violated his Buyanja right of association by removing him from the group chat without his prior knowledge. He prayed that the court ask Mr. Asinguza add him back to the group and that he should forfeit the right to remove him from the group at any point.
WhatsApp is a messaging App that uses the Internet as a medium of communication. Texts, audio, video and picture contents can be sent across the world using low data. The messaging platform is owned by Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram.
