Ruth Sebatindira is the new Administrator of Uganda Telecom (UTL) stepping in place of Bemanya Tumwebaze whose contract expired in November 2019.

Bemanya’s tenure punctuated with a series of troubles. In December 2019, wrote to court asking it to remove him from office and replace him with an eligible Insolvency Practitioner.

Bemanya was faulted for mishandling UTL, failing to collect the outstanding amounts due to UTL from the government and its departments

The High Court in Kampala has appointed Ms Ruth Sebatindira, the former President of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) as the new Administrator of Uganda Telecom Limited-(UTL).

The appointment of an Administrator lies in the jurisdiction of court and the same has powers to look at the list of all licensed Insolvency Practitioners and exercise its discretion to appoint a legible administrator.

He was also involved in a fight with State Minister for Investment. Anite told parliament that Twebaze had reportedly blocked the Auditor General John Muwanga and the finance ministry from auditing the company, saying he can only report to the court. She added that the government, which holds 31 per cent shares in UTL, had lost control over the telecom

Bemanya, however, says he did his best to take the ship that is UTL forward only, he failed to meet the expectations of the powers.

Who is Ruth Sebatindira?

Ruth Sebatindira has formerly served as the President of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) between 2013-2016. She is a legal practitioner with many years of experience. She is the co-founder of Ligomarc Advocates.

She has largely been in areas like; corporate insolvency, company/shareholder disputes, lender enforcement actions and trademarks litigation.

She is a Commissioner at the Judicial Service Commission which advises the President of Uganda on the appointment of Judges, exercises disciplinary control over Judicial officers and advises on the administration of Justice in Uganda. In this role, she focuses on improving access to justice and restoring judicial integrity.

She is also a Board Chair at Special Olympics Uganda

Ruth Sebatindira has an LLM from The University of Manchester, UK. She is a member of Uganda Law Society, East Africa Law Society, International Bar Association, International Fiscal Association and Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).