Kampala — The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has returned to the Court of Appeal, in a fresh bid to quash the award of Shs36 billion to Alcon International.

Last year, the Court of Appeal ordered that NSSF pay Alcon over Shs36 billion as compensation for having terminated its contract to build Workers House in 1998. NSSF accused Alcon of shoddy work, escalating the project's cost and sub-contracting a third party without its knowledge.

NSSF which had rejected the Court of Appeal ruling and gone to the Supreme Court, has now returned to the lower court with the Fund's newly- appointed company Secretary Mr David Nambali, saying NSSF had dealt with Alcon UK not Alcon Kenya which they had contracted.

NSSF, which filed the application in the Court of Appeal last week said of the U-turn in a statement: "NSSF believes the Court of Appeal would have arrived at a different decision if the right Alcon International Ltd as a proper party to suit had not been overlooked," said Mr Victor Karamagi, the Public Relations Manager. "For now, the Fund has stayed the Supreme Court proceedings pending the disposal of the petition."

NSSF Chairman Vincent Ssekkono in his affidavit states that he was advised by Mr Nambali that Alcon's directors wrongly registered multiple companies with similar names and manipulated the names in order to deceive entities they dealt with so as to win tenders for the construction of Workers House.