By Mulengera Reporters
Even as NUP blue-eyed girl Zahara Luyirika emerged victorious at the Twed Towers-based Civil Division of the High Court on Wednesday, Ag Judge Simon Peter Kinobe made some observations which Kavule ought to pay significant attention to.
Three Makindye West voters, including a NUP party member who had applied to become the flag bearer for that area, had filed a Judicial Review application in the same Court challenging the circumstances under which Zahara Luyirika, who famously had applied for Kampala Woman MP role, ended up getting the flag for Makindye West.
During the inquiry into the application, trial Judge Simon Peter Kinobe received and interrogated evidence showing that NUP first called on those interested to express interest in June before extending the same to September, after the first deadline had elapsed.
The applicants asserted that at the conclusion of the second extension, Luyirika hadn’t expressed interest and demanded to know how and why she was smuggled into the exercise, following the unexpected return of Shamim Malende from hospital. In her affidavit in reply, Luyirika asserted that she was able to apply for Makindye West after expiry of the second extension.
She asserted that there was a third and final extension, which she took advantage of to apply for Makindye West without having to first abandon her Kampala Woman MP desire. That the NUP practice, election rules and Constitution do not prohibit this at all.
What perturbed the Judge was that Luyirika didn’t tender the notice that the party’s EMC published or put out indicating to or notifying all party members that the second deadline had publicly been extended upon expiry.
This created the impression that the extension window for the 3rd time was never publicised. Indeed, Luyirika’s filings indicated it was exclusively communicated verbally to her by friendly party officials.
This perturbed the Judge who wondered how other party members and potential flag bearers would get to know about that extension so that they too could take advantage of the same.
Kinobe also clarified that it would be imprudent for a party to call for expression of interest without setting a deadline and leave the process open-ended.
He likened this to UNEB setting say UACE exams and leave the door or process indefinitely open for each candidate to choose when to write his or her exam and subsequently hand in their script. He said this would be absurd.
NUP lawyer Jonathan Orutu and Tebyasa Matovu who represented Luyirika at the Wednesday Court session struggled and failed to show to the Judge that the 3rd extension was indeed in good faith and was publicised to every party member and not just to Luyirika only.
The Judge demanded to know where this had been publicized and all Orutu did was to flash in his face an online news website which had written about it. “Your Honor I get beg to pass on my phone and you look at it.” The Judge disregarded that, saying Court can’t operate like that.
In any case, parties had concluded tendering in all manner of pleadings and evidence, and accepting something like that would amount to ‘opening a pandora’s box,’ which the Judge said he wasn’t prepared to do.
Saying the Wednesday session had only been meant for him to ask a few clarification questions from the parties’ lawyers, Kinobe registered his dismay and reminded the NUP lawyer Orutu about the need to guide his party bosses at Kavule to begin running NUP formally and not informally as if it’s not a public organization.
He made it clear there is no way a properly-ran public institution can communicate such deadline extension verbally to Luyirika and a few other favoured aspirants as opposed to doing it properly in a manner that universally can benefit all other party members. Orutu told him about the same being posted on the party’s social media platforms, which the Judge still disputed as not being good enough.
He reminded Orutu that the informality with which the Luyirika relocation from Kampala Woman MP slot to that of Makindye West, was handled can’t be accepted as normal even in the running of a basic family business or company. Kinobe made it clear that NUP is a public organization for Ugandans, and not merely the personal property of Robert Kyagulanyi as a person.
It must be run in a manner that meets minimum corporate governance standards. Kinobe stressed that political parties can’t be ran like private family businesses because they are public institutions as opposed to being personal possessions of individual party leaders.
“That’s why this business which I keep hearing about regarding this being Mao’s DP, is simply unacceptable because there is no such a thing.” He also cautioned Orutu against letting his party bosses at Kavule to imagine that something gets to be known by everybody in the whole world simply because it has been posted on their social media.
“I’m an example myself. I have the most expensive phone as you can see but I never use it to check what has been posted on NUP social media platforms. I only consider what parties have put in their pleadings and I use my very expensive phone to call my wife to see how she is doing. So, don’t imagine that everyone gets to know about it simply because it was posted on the NUP social media platforms. People have many other things to do and they are not there to keep checking on NUP social media platforms.”
Even after reflecting on so much about the party leadership’s failure to run NUP properly, Justice Kinobe turned onto the applicants and faulted them for a number of things. The main point he faulted them on related to failure to adequately take advantage of the internal party dispute resolution mechanisms.
He for instance asked why they didn’t petition the tribunal which had been put in place to inquire into flag bearer choices-related grievances.
The lawyers told him that their clients tried taking advantage of that but were frustrated when the leaders at Kavule ordered the registry not to accept nor receive their petition.
That they were chased away because people at Kavule were determined to shield Zahara Luyirika who the petitioners maintained was unfairly given the flag for Makindye West. Kinobe then demanded to know why they didn’t immediately file their Judicial Review application in Court.
It was only filed a few days preceding the Wednesday morning session. Justice Simon Peter Kinobe demanded to know why they didn’t act promptly. The lawyers tried to explain but the judge didn’t seem satisfied with what was being said to him.
That is how in the end, the Judge dismissed the application whose major purpose was to have Zahara Luyirika get nominated for Makindye West MP Seat but without being the NUP flag bearer.
This was disallowed by Justice Kinobe who maintained that the applicants didn’t do enough to exploit the internal dispute resolution mechanism inside NUP.
The Kinobe decision caused the more than 50 Luyirika supporters in the Court to erupt into jubilations and chants of “NUP oyee, President Kyagulanyi Oyee.”
Kinobe informed the applicants’ lawyers he wasn’t prepared to write shabby things in his judgment, which could cause NUP bloggers and social media users to destroy his reputation on the internet. He used the word “sagala abasajja bagende bampisemu eggaali nga mpandiise ebintu ebitategerekeka [things which don’t add up].”
But even if Kinobe had ruled against her, Luyirika (who is personally close to and is related to many powerful people in government) had already outsmarted her adversaries and moved ahead of them by leveraging her good contacts inside the Electoral Commission whose officials ensured she got nominated as early as 10am. This was two hours before Justice Kinobe had delivered or proclaimed his decision.
This simply means that the applicants would have to file more cases and applications to get the NUP flag removed from her as a duly nominated candidate for Makindye West, in case Justice Peter Kinobe had ruled in the applicants’ favour.
As they celebrated in the corridors of the Court premises on Twed Towers’ 4th floor, Luyirika’s supporters shouted at and mocked the applicants’ lawyers while making it clear that Kyagulanyi and his NUP revolution was simply unstoppable even inside Gen YK Museveni’s Courts. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
