A decision taken by a parliamentary committee to suspend operations of Blue Wave Beverages Limited has been challenged in the courts of law.
Blue Wave Beverages, the manufacturers of Blue Wave purified water, has dragged the Attorney General and Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to court to challenge a decision by Parliament’s committee on Equal Opportunities, chaired by Kampala Central MP, Mohammed Nsereko, to order for its closure.
In a suit, filed by WEB Advocates and Solicitors, Quan Liu, the managing director of Blue Wave, the applicant stated that on November 23, 2016, he appeared before the committee following an invitation to interact with MPs on its operations.
Liu states in the affidavit that after interacting with the committee, they left Parliament, only to learn later that Nsereko had paraded bottles bearing a brand of Blue Wave from a carton, which he publicly denounced as unfit for human consumption.
Liu says that prior to the public denouncement of the product, he was never shown the bottled water to verify that the batch numbers, the bottles and products were from the factory.
The affidavit says that on 23rd November 2016, inspectors from Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) went to the factory, carried out on-site inspection and found the production line and systems compliant.
The company was later shocked to receive a letter from UNBS Executive Director Dr Ben Manyindo suspending their production. Blue Wave says the decision to suspend their operations was wrong, in spite of a report issued by UNBS on November 21, 2016, two days before its appearance in Parliament, stating that the company was compliant.
The company is seeking damages amounting to Shs 8bn on grounds that it has lost public goodwill and confidence; loss of sales revenue for the days since its closure; cancelled contracts.
Justice Mugambe has given the parties two days to hold negotiations out of court and reconvene on Thursday, 22nd December 2016 with a decision. If it fails, the court will start hearing the application.