By Spy Uganda
Kampala: It’s a moment of joy for Kawempe North’s workaholic MP Muhamad Ssegirinya after the High Court in Kampala dismissing Sulaiman Kidandala’s petition.
Ssegirinya defeated nine other candidates when he scored 41,197 votes against his closest challenger Sulaiman Kidandala who had 7,512 votes in polls held on January 14, 2021. But this victory was challenged by Kidandala when he alleged that Ssegirinya didn’t have the requisite academic qualifications to contest for a parliamentary seat.
The law requires all persons contesting for a parliamentary seat to have an A-level or it’s equivalent. But according to Kidandala’s petition, the academic documents that Ssegirinya presented to the Electoral Commission were forged, which constitutes a crime under the Parliamentary Election Act.
But by the time this petition was filed, Ssegirinya had been arrested and later remanded to Kitalya Prisons for holding an unlawful assembly. Because of being in prison, Kindalala was unable to serve Ssegirinya with the petition prompting them to apply to the court to allow him to serve through the OC of Kitalya Prisons which the Court denied.
It is against the above background that today, September 7th, 2021 Justice Henrietta Wolayo ruled that there is no evidence by Kidandala’s lawyers to prove that Ssegirinya was served as required by the law.
“The OC of Kitalya prison had to endorse the petition to prove that he had been served (on behalf of Ssegirinya),” Justice Wolayo said in a ruling read by the court’s deputy registrar, Agnes Alum.
The judge explained that the order of substituted service meant that Kidandala’s lawyers had to serve Ssegirinya personal while in prison or if not, through the officer in charge of the prison who had to endorse receipt of the petition but also pin a notice on the court’s notice board.
Wolayo however noted that despite a notice being put on the court’s notice board, Ssegirinya who was in prison was never served.“This means there was ineffective service. Having found the petition redundant and a non-starter for lack of service, it is struck off the record,” she said meaning that Ssegirinya is the duly elected Member of Parliament for Kawempe North Constituency.
