Court Sets Date To Deliver Verdict On City Mayoral By-Elections

The beleaguered Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

High court has set Friday 28th as the date for delivering its verdict on the forthcoming city mayoral elections. Justice Lydia Mugambe announced the date on Friday evening after listening to lengthy submissions for and against the by-elections.

Early this month, Erias Lukwago, the embattled KCCA Lord Mayor filed an application in High court challenging the forthcoming by elections.

It came after Electoral Commission announced April 17 as the date for the city mayoral by elections. Lukwago was controversially impeached from officer in November last year by city councilors following a tribunal report, which implicated him for abuse of office. Prior to the special KCCA meeting, Justice Yasin Nyanzi issued a court order stopping the meeting but it was ignored by Frank Tumwebaze, the Kampala minister who chaired it.

On Friday, Martin Mwambutysa, the representative of the attorney general told court that the purported court order presented to the minister Tumwebaze was fake. He explained that the court order did not bear a signature, court stamp and seal to authenticate it. He said that the only authentic court order was served onto the AG at 10:05am when the 29 KCCA councilors had already voted out Lukwago at 9:30am and that there was status quo to preserve.

Mwambutysa noted that Lukwago had only one way out following his impeachment, which would have been to appeal against resolution but he didn’t do it. Dickinson Akena and Eric Sabiiti, who represented KCCA and EC respectively, also asked court to kick out Lukwago’s application with costs. Sabiiti asked Lukwago to participate in the forthcoming mayoral by-elections saying there is no law, which prohibits him from vying for the position despite having been impeached.