AG: Lukwago Impeachment Still Valid

Peter-Nyombi

Attorney General Peter Nyombi.

Attorney General Peter Nyombi
Attorney General Peter Nyombi

Uganda’s Attorney General insists that beleaguered Kampala City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s impeachment is still valid despite the High Court quashing the decision by KCCA councilors to kick him out of City Hall.

Kampala Minister on Thursday revealed his intention to appeal the High Court’s decision that reinstated Lukwago as mayor.

In a special council meeting chaired by Frank Tumwebaze, 29 councillors voted in favour of removing Mr Lukwago. Three councillors opposed the motion.

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On Thursday, the High Court in Kampala ruled that embattled Lukwago be reinstated at City Hall pending determination of his main application.

However, AG Peter Nyombi says the resolution passed by the KCCA councilors removing Lukwago from the Office of The Lord Mayor remains valid.

Below is his full statement on the matter;

ATTORNEY GENERAL’S STATEMENT ON THE CASE OF ERIAS LUKWAGO VERSUS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THE TRIBUNAL INVESTIGATING THE PETITION AGAINST THE LORD MAYOR VIDE MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATION 445 OF 2013.

28th November 2013   This afternoon, High Court Justice Yasin Nyanzi granted the former Lord Mayor Mr. Erias Lukwago the following reliefs:-

1. An interim injunction restraining the Minister in charge of Kampala Capital City from acting on the report of the KCCA tribunal.

2. An interim injunction restraining the Attorney General and the Minister in charge of Kampala Capital City and the KCCA Councillors from proceeding with the vote for his removal from office.

3. An interim injunction restraining the Attorney General and/or the Minister for Kampala Capital City from convening a meeting of KCCA to discuss the tribunal report.   4. Costs of the application.   The background to this ruling is as follows:-

The former Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago filed an application against the Attorney General and the tribunal investigating the petition against the Lord Mayor vide Miscellaneous Application 445 of 2013, seeking the above interim orders.

By this time, the Minister for Kampala had convened a meeting of the Authority scheduled for the 25th of November at 9.00 a.m. at KCCA Authority chambers. On the said date, the Authority councillors in attendance voted on a resolution to remove the Lord Mayor from office.Twenty nine Authority councillors voted in favour of the Lord Mayor`s removal and three voted against.

The Lord Mayor ceased to hold office at 9.30 a.m. when the said resolution was passed by the Authority.   On the same day the Assistant Registrar of the High Court issued an interim order that sought to stop the process of impeachment of The Lord Mayor. Unfortunately, by the time the order was issued and communicated, the process of impeachment had been completed.

This position was communicated in my letter to the Court on 26th November 2013 and in the State Attorney’s address to the Learned Judge before the Court delivered its ruling today. The Court however felt it was better to deal with the application and the facts as they stood when the application was filed on 20th November 2013 ie. as if the meeting in which the Lord Mayor was impeached had not taken place.

The interim injunction has thus been issued today, the 28th of November 2013 seeking to stop the meeting that occurred on 25th November 2013. The interim injunction is therefore impossible to implement as we cannot stop a meeting that has already occurred.

Infact the seat of the Lord Mayor has already been declared vacant and the Electoral Commission has accordingly been notified in accordance with the law.   None of the reliefs granted to Mr. Erias Lukwago by the High Court requires his reinstatement to the office of Lord Mayor.

The resolution passed by the KCCA councillors removing Mr. Lukwago from the office of The Lord Mayor remains valid.   Much as it is the obligation and desire of this office to implement all orders of Court, the fact that the orders have been issued after the authority meeting has taken place and resolution for removal has been passed, this makes the orders unenforceable.

I am however taking steps to have the order discharged by the Courts.

Hon. Peter Nyombi

ATTORNEY GENERAL

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18 thoughts on “AG: Lukwago Impeachment Still Valid

  1. What could one expect from AG that was obvoius Order from above we shall see who is going to be d winner

    1. No comment to u coz even ones own thinking, u take it from above when will u pipo think positively. hahahahaha. Alas.

  2. You are incompetent. Those issues you are raising are well known by the court. The truth is that an interim order was issued while the meeting was in progress. Tumwebaze was served by a councilor Allan but he decided to refer to the order as a forgery, without crosschecking with court. But it turned out that the order was in fact a true document of court. so what do you mean, when you say the meeting had already impeached Lukwago? Are you a serious human being? We know very well that the state had deployed heavily at city hall to frustrate any effort to serve Tumwebaze with the court order. That is why, Lukwago’s lawyer Abdallah Kiwanuka was almost killed by the police, because they were implementing instructions from the state – that no one should bring a court order before the meeting was concluded!!!! But alas, God works in miraculous ways … no one thought that Allan would carry the order. He entered for the proceedings, after police check, but still managed to deliver the order to the Chair. I guess that is why those unscrupulous state operatives and police felt so annoyed and ruthlessly pulled Allan out of the meeting.

    The order stands Bwana Nyombi. You cannot say that it does not stand, yet you and your friend Tumwebaze are preparing to make an appeal. Don’t you see that you are contradicting yourself? That is why the law society gave you a certificate of incompetence. You really sound strange on matters of law. Mpozzi wasomelawa??

    1. May I ask Muslim or the general public when a doc’t z genuine or forged. Let u be educated that in the first instance o doc’t z forged when it’s not issued doesn’t originate frm the original author, now 4 purposes of court if the same doesn’t have a court seal then it is a forged doc’t. Now at the tym da doc’t was uttered ut never had a court seal rendering it a forgery, that’s Y a new doc’t was issued later on 28th Nov 2013.

  3. Lukwago stands a better chance of getting back to city hall if he goes for a by elections. If he insists on his current impeachment, things are going to get even worse for him. Now that KCCA has shut down. Nothing is going to happen at city hall and to break the dead lock M7 will invoke his constitution powers to take full direct control of KCCA. This will mean that every body at KCCA including the political wing will lose their jobs. And it might take months if not years before he hands it over. Remember the constitution gives him the power to do so. During that time NRM MPs might amend the KCCA Act just like the KCCA tribunal recommended. In the end the opposition will be even in a more difficult position to take control of Kampala. Some times it’s better to use common sense in certain issues.

  4. It is very unfortunate that those we think are learned and the Gov’t relies on (AG) are so far from what they are supposed to be! Surprisingly; Gov’t continues to pay them salary and other benefits as if they are working normally. Waa gyetugeenda…?

    1. Don’t read or follow national issues with from nowhere, have a point 2 start from. First things comes first and others follow U can’t convince everybody that what the AG said was rubbish.

      1. Some people choose to see the forest but not the trees!!! Others see the individual trees before realizing that it is a forest!!! Even if you continue ignoring the facts as they are laid down by the events, history is putting them down!!!

  5. The former Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago filed an application against the
    Attorney General and the tribunal investigating the petition against the
    Lord Mayor vide Miscellaneous Application 445 of 2013, seeking the following orders.

    1. An interim injunction restraining the Minister in charge of
    Kampala Capital City from acting on the report of the KCCA tribunal.

    2. An interim injunction restraining the Attorney General and the
    Minister in charge of Kampala Capital City and the KCCA Councillors from
    proceeding with the vote for his removal from office.

    3. An interim injunction restraining the Attorney General and/or the
    Minister for Kampala Capital City from convening a meeting of KCCA to
    discuss the tribunal report. 4. Costs of the application. The
    background to this ruling is as follows:-

    I dont see any prayer for reinstatement of the lord Mayor, where did Yasin, a Fellow Muslim like Lukwago get the guts to order something outside the application. Besides, the prayers sought had been over taken by events, orders given on Thursday cant affect a decision taken on Monday, Justice Nyanzi needs to style up. orders cant work retrospectively

    1. Was the court order served? Yes! Was it served before the vote? Yes, even though the honorable minister chose to ignore it!!! Then what else do you want??? He was never removed from the office, and therefore, he remains validly the Lord mayor! I wonder who should style up instead!!! My brother, let’s remove our sentiments and emotions from issues and let our reason be employed! It’s the faculty of reason that differentiates us from other animals, and so let’s not abuse it!!! No one is above the law, and unless we learn that, we still have a very long way to go!

    2. Mr. Wadada, if I were you, I would first delve in the findings and recommendations of the tribunal before putting your fingers on the key board to write that you do not see where it was prayed that Lukwago be re-instated. If that was the case, the Minister and AG would have used that as a loophole in the HC ruling. By restraining the Minister and AG from implementing the findings and recommendations of the tribunal means that the Councillors can not go ahead and impeach Lukwago. The impeachment comes as a result of the tribunal. Therefore, if the injunction is stayed and Lukwago appeal is heard, then the outcome of the appeal will now hold the stage. This is the simple logic in the saga that seems to have eluded your analysis.

    3. Thank you very much I wish u were near in the corner u’d have gotten my 5. great thinking bro.

      1. Its because you are equally myopic and ignorant. You don’t understand or your have chosen to pretend that there was no court injunction before the vote. Congratulate your colleague with who you share a similar quantum of ignorance, that’s why they say “birds of the same feather flock together”

    4. You don’t sound intelligent at all. So i understand that I am taking a serious risk debating with you, but let me try … if you choose to remain dumb, others will benefit from this post.

      1. The interim injunction you referred to was issued on monday 25 Nov, by the High court registrar one Fred (a Christian like you)- the day Tumwebaze held the meeting. Tumwebaze received it during the course of the meeting, but chose to ignore it by referring to it as a forgery.

      2. On the same day, during the afternoon hours, Justice Yasin Nyanzi heard the application for the court order and upheld the earlier injunction which had been issued by the court registrar in the early morning hours.

      3. On 28 November, Justice Yasin Nyanzi extended the same court injunction, pending the hearing of the main application in which Lukwago is challenging the tribunal findings and recommendations

      It takes blind minded people like you a lot of time to understand what these things mean practically. But please understand that when the court issued the interim injunction which the minister ignored, the real meaning of all subsequent judgements practically imply that whatever was done by KCCA in disregard of the court injunction is rendered null and void. That means the impeachment which was attempted by the minister does not stand. Consequently, Lukwago was never impeached. The judge never sought to re-instate Lukago, he simply nullified what was done and that is why Lukwago remains a Mayor.

      I have seen and heard simple minded boys in the city talking about a court order coming after the impeachment took place. This is a desperate attempt to misrepresent what actually happened. The truth is that, there was an injunction from Monday, and that is still in force. I can see you trying to reflect this issue as a religious battle – that is why I sarcastically referred to Registrar Fred as (a Christian like you). For me, the religious thing doesn’t hold anything. The important thing is the law and what it says. As a matter of fact, there are more Christians in the Judiciary than Muslims and now the state is planning to appeal the Nyanzi judgement. Do want us to interpret what court will say in the appeal along religious lines? Shut up if you have no substance to write on this platform.

  6. If the Uganda’s Attorney General is Peter Nyombi then his statement does not carry any meaning because he still has serious issues to solve with Uganda Law Society due to being unpredictable Lawyer who is banned because of lack of authenticity.

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