KAMPALA, Uganda
The Supreme Court has issued an interim order staying the execution of the Constitutional court decision arising from the late Bob Kasango's petition.
The justices led by Justice Kenneth Kakuru on
March 18 unanimously ordered that a serving judge should resign before taking
up any other appointment in executive or constitutional offices. They declared
that effective March 18, any judicial officer serving in such offices who
continues with duties before the resignation, their decisions shall be invalid.
They reasoned that such actions contravene
several articles enshrined under the constitution regarding their mandates as
judicial officers and the oath they take which talks about being
independent.
The ruling by the justices was as a result of
the petition filed by the late Kasango in 2016 who challenged the decisions
made by the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Justice Mike Chibita to
sanction corruption-related charges against him when he was still a serving
judge.
But last week, all the offices that were
affected by the decision applied for an interim stay of the proceedings in the
Supreme Court pending the hearing of the main application. The affected offices
include the Electoral Commission currently headed by Justice Simon Byabakama,
the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) led by Justice Benjamin Kabiito and the
DPP led by Justice Jane Frances Abodo.
They jointly argued that there was going to be
a legal crisis in the country if the stay is not granted because there was a
big threat to execute the said orders. The Electoral Commission argued
that the swearing-in of new leaders in the country which is scheduled for May
2021 was going to be affected since a fully constituted Electoral Commission is
the one that presents them to the swearing-in authority to take the oath, while
the DPP, argued that the criminal justice system was most likely to be crippled
given that the law doesn't allow the DPP to delegate powers given to him or
her.
The JSC told the court that the recruitment
process of judicial officers for this financial year had already been disrupted
following the constitutional judgement. The director for civil litigation
Christine Kahwa in the Attorney General’s office told the court on Wednesday
that there's a need for a stay of the execution adding that there is an
intended appeal that is yet to be filed challenging the Constitutional court
decisions. According to Kahwa, this appeal has higher chances of
succeeding.
However, the panel of five Supreme court
Justices led by chief justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo in their ruling agreed with
the applicants and issued an interim order staying the decision of the
Constitutional court.
According to Justice Paul Mugamba who read the
decision on behalf of the panel, the order will remain in force until the
determination of the substantive application or any other order. Other justices
are Stellah Arach Amoko, Rubby Opio Aweri and Ezekiel Muhanguzi.
This now implies that the officers who have
been previously affected by the ruling can resume their duties unless there is
any other order directing them to do otherwise. Lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde has
said that the decision has been done in law and he intends to apply to join the
proceedings such that he can represent the deceased Kasango. Ssemakadde on
Wednesday wrote to the justices seeking to block the hearing of the Attorney
General’s application in the absence of the deceased who wasn’t served.
Earlier in the hearing, chief justice
Owiny-Dollo said that although today's application has been heard exparte, the
main application and the appeal will have a respondent to challenge the
arguments by the applicants because of the nature of their importance.
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