Nile Treasure Gate Company Limited, a labour export recruitment firm has refuted allegations of conspiring to traffic Judith Nakintu, 38, to Saudi Arabia where she purportedly lost her kidney.
This follows the arrest of two directors of the company on Thursday when they appeared at the Criminal Investigations Directorate – CID headquarters in Kibuli, Kampala for interrogations.
We’ve further learnt that the two directors have since been confined at Jinja Road Police Station for more than a week which is beyond the stipulated time by constitution for an individual to be in police custody.
The suspects are Mariam Mohammad, Sulaiman Abubaker Kato, Salmah Mohammed, and Ali Hassan.
Mariam, Kato, and Salmah are the directors of the company while Hassan was the commission agent who directly recruited the victim.
Background
According to documents which have been released to the investigating authorities in Uganda, the Kiwatule based Nile Treasure Gate Company sent Nakintu to work in Jeddah Saudi Arabia on December 12, 2019, as a housemaid.
While in Saudi Arabia, Nakintu was involved in a serious motor road accident on the new coast Road after the Al-qattan Bridge towards Al-Laith, a traffic accident occurred in which a vehicle of Tahoe model overturned, number plate 5569,with a driver Saad Dhafer, Saudi national I.D No: 1036733028.
This website further established that six people who were in the vehicle sustained serious injuries resulting to immediate death of a 10 year boy, one Latin Saad Dhafer Als-Asmari and his death certificate was issued under no11939632 on 7 July 2021.
We further learnt that the family escort a one Saud Saad Al-Asmari also died onspot and the death certificate was released under No: 406100059295.
The Driver Sad Dhafer got serious injury and was tried under a medical report No: 11939628. This included superficial bruises and the recovery period of more than 10 days.
Another escort Faiza Nasir Al-Shihri got injuries and her report was issued under No; 11937666 July 06, 2021 which included trauma to the left shoulder.
Saja Saad Al-Asmari also an escort got a fracture of thoracic vertebra, first and second lumbar vertebrae and fracture of left pelvis and was treated under medical form No 10937666
Nura Saad Al-Asmari got injuries of the fracture of the la appendix of seventh cervical vertebra without any spinal cord compression, thoracic vertebrae 7-8-9-10-11-12 and was treated under No: 10937663.
Lastly, Judith Nakintu who was part of the team that was also involved in the accident got 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.
She was also treated under medical form No: 10937659. Later on, after a medical surgery procedure, she suffered a stroke that paralyzed her.
Company Response
“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.
Adding that, “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.”
“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,” a statement dated 12 February 2022 read.
The company says several days later, 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 says the Hospital’s report also showed multiple external bruises, bruises of the lungs with a simple bloody air gathering inside, liver bruises, and 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 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.
Mulago Scan Report
“The radiologists at Mulago did two scans. The first preliminary scan was unclear, and the company paid for the second and more comprehensive one, which indicated that the right kidney was missing,” the company recounted.
According to the company, the arrest of the two directors on Thursday 10 February, a relative and an agent following two days of police interrogation.
A joint team of investigators from various security agencies and immigration is probing the increasing claims of Ugandan domestic workers whose internal organs have been removed.
The police team is composed of detectives from the forensic department, Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), Interpol, while others are cross-border experts from the Immigration department.
CID spokesperson Charles Twine, says they cannot conclude whether the victims organs were removed before a comprehensive postmortem analysis or medical examination for living victims.
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.
Nakintu has been in the news for losing a kidney in a scheme allegedly orchestrated by the proprietors of the Kiwatule based Nile Treasure Gate, a labour export firm and Dhafer. 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.
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.
Nsubuga explained that they are already working with security agencies in Uganda and Saudi Arabia to establish how Nakintu’s kidney was removed during the one year she spent in the hospital under treatment.
What has left people shocked is that Agnes Igoye, the deputy coordinator National Anti-human Trafficking Department at the ministry of Internal Affairs telling the who world uncultured information that Nile Treasure Gate Company conspired with medical officers in Saudi Arabia to make claims that Nakintu was involved in an accident and that her internal organs were intact.
Attached are more findings..
