KAMPALA, Uganda
Six concerned citizens from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have petitioned the East African Court of Justice challenging the conduct of the January 2021 presidential election.
The
lawsuit filed earlier this month also asks the court to end the widespread
violence and human rights abuses that erupted before the election, and some of
which continue.
The
lead petitioner, Dr Lina Zedriga Waru Abuku, is a Ugandan human rights activist
and secretary of the Uganda National Committee for the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and
All Forms of Discrimination.
Dr
Zedriga is also the deputy chairperson of the National Unity Platform whose presidential
candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, claims he won the election.
The
Electoral Commission declared President Museveni winner with 58 per cent of the
vote. In power since 1986, he is expected to be sworn-in in May.
The
other applicants are Arthur Larok and Andrew Karamagi, who are both Ugandan citizens
and rights activists. Others are Deus Valentine Rweyemanu, a Tanzanian human
rights activist, Kenyan rights and anti-corruption activist John Githongo and
Abubakar Zein Abubakar, a former member of the East African Legislative
Assembly representing Kenya.
The
applicants want the regional court to declare the conduct and outcome of the
presidential election as unlawful due to the “massive violence and criminality”
that surrounded it.
They
also want the court to order an end to rights abuses of Opposition supporters
allegedly orchestrated by Ugandan police, military and Special Forces Command,
and declare that the East African Community should have done more to ensure a
free, fair and credible election in the country.
“We
expect justice. I think this case is going to be a test to that court,” Mr Job
Kijja, the convener of the applicants, said.
He
added: “We have taken some cases there but even though we didn’t get the
results we wanted, we thought we could go back instead of the Ugandan courts
that are influenced by the regime.”
At
least 54 Ugandans were shot dead in November in election-related violence and
hundreds of Opposition supporters remain in detention after a wave of arrests,
kidnaps and forced disappearances.
Social
media and the Internet were also shut down before Election Day, something the
petitioners say reduced the transparency of the process.
However,
no one has been held responsible for the killings, despite media investigations
showing that many of the victims were not involved in the protests that sparked
the lethal response by the military.
Mr
Kyagulanyi petitioned the Supreme Court in Uganda to annul the election result
but withdrew his case after the court refused to allow him to present new
evidence of electoral irregularities.
Chief
Justice Owiny-Dollo also refused to recuse himself from hearing the case after
his impartiality was questioned.
Mr
Owiny-Dollo had previously represented Mr Museveni as one of his defence
lawyers in a presidential election petition challenging an earlier disputed
win.
Security
operatives have abducted hundreds of suspected Opposition supporters and
sympathisers, often from their homes in the dead of the night, detained them in
ungazetted places beyond the constitutional 48 hours and without access to
family and lawyers.
Several
Opposition supporters have been charged in military courts for possessing red
berets, a symbol of the NUP party, but which is also similar to the outfit of
the Military Police.
The
case lists several top officials and agencies in Uganda that the applicants
claim contributed to making the election a blatant farce.
The
institutions include the Uganda Communications Commission, which regulates the
internet industry, and Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, the public broadcaster,
which the Supreme Court has previously accused of not giving balanced coverage
to all candidates.
Ms
Judith Nabakooba, the country’s Information and Communications Technology
minister, said she wasn’t privy to the details of the case.
On
March 12, 2021, the East Africa Law Society (EALS), filed a case at this same
court challenging the Ugandan government over its shutting down of the internet
and mobile money, and blocking of social media platforms and virtual private
networks (VPNs).
The
case also follows a general trend across Africa where citizens who lose faith
in their national courts or are blocked from accessing those courts with
matters of elections and democracy are heading to regional or continental
courts to seek justice.
Last
November, two cases were filed at the African Court on Human and Peoples’
Rights and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) arising from the Tanzanian
elections.
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