Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine, President of the National Unity Platform (NUP), has stated that due to apparent unfairness on the bench, he has threatened to withdraw his election petition from the Supreme Court.
Since the NUP was surrounded by the Police on January 14, for the first time Bobi Wine speaking with reporters from the NUP Headquarters on Tuesday stated that the Supreme Court has displayed an exceptional level of unfairness against him and their close relations to the first respondent President Yoweri Museveni who election victory he is challenging.
He said some of the nine justices set to hear his election petition including the chief justice, Alfonse Owinyi-Dollo, Ezekiel Muhanguzi and Mike Chibita can’t be independent jurors because they have in the past worked closely with Museveni.
“We want the chief justice not to be part of this hearing, not just the chief justice, there are other justices of the Supreme Court. People like the hon. Mike Chibita who we all know was a private secretary for legal affairs in Mr Museveni’s office for seven years. We also know that the hon. Ezekiel Muhanguzi is a relative to Gen Elly Tumwine – a person that the national and international community has castigated for abuse of human rights, a very powerful regime apologist has a relative who is going to determine the fate of his boss. So we join all voices that are demanding for them to recuse themselves from hearing this case because we don’t expect to hear any justice from them,” Kyagulanyi said.
City Lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi filed an application on Monday with the Supreme Court requesting the Chief Justice for him to be released from the case sighting that was the Defense Lawyer for Museveni in 2006 when he was sued over yet another election dispute filed by Dr. Kizza Besigye who the opposition candidate of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Kyagulanyi, when asked if he backs Mabirizi’s petition, he stated that he welcomes any efforts by anyone to challenge Museveni’s victory in court. He, however, clarified that any concerns they have will be raised by what he called a robust legal team of his party.
As stated by Kyagulanyi, he object about the Supreme Court’s refusal to grant him leave to amend his petition. This he says is because it’s an unfair and biased court as in the past, and this very court has granted permission for presidential petitioners to amend their petitions and also to introduce fresh evidence in the midst of hearing.
The courts has also denied Kyagulanyi the opportunity of filing more affidavits stating that he was out of time and Kyagulanyi is unhappy with this ruling. The usual practice of the courts was to hear arguments from petitioners and the respondents of a period of weeks instead of which now the court would only have an open hearing for a day. This practice is also of concern to the NUP President.
The NUP President clearly stated that this is all a testimony of how unfair the courts is towards him. When asked why only now that he is expressing grief about the unfairness of the court, and yet when in the past he publicly announced that he did not except any justice from the Supreme Court because it’s another of Museveni’s tools just like the Electoral Commission, Kyagulanyi said amidst those fears of bias, he expected them to do their job of dispensing justice.
According the Kyagulanyi, he has requested his party lawyers to submit a formal application to the court explicitly stating their demands that the court should obey or else the case will be withdrawn. Antony Wameli, one of Kyagulanyi lead Counsels have declined comment if such instructions have been given or not.
“Can you talk to counsel [Medard] Sseggona or party spokesperson Ssenyonyi?” Wameli said. Our efforts to speak to Sseggona who is the lead lawyer for the petitioner were futile as he didn’t answer our repeated calls to his known number.
