Supreme Court to hear case in which lawyer Mabirizi accuses judges of conflict of interest

The Supreme Court has said it will soon hear the petition in which some of its judges were accused of conflict of interest and bias during the age limit appeal.

Lawyer Male Mabirizi, one of the appellants in the  age limit case dismissed last week, filed a petition asking for nullification of the majority judgment which upheld the lifting of the presidential age limit saying the three  judges who upheld the amendment are connected to President Museveni.

However, in response, the court has said it cannot hear the petition this month but promised that it would be considered later.

“This is to inform you that there are no available dates in April as you requested.

You will however be notified the available date for hearing thereafter,” the Supreme Court Deputy Registrar, Godfrey Opifeni said in a communication to Mabirizi also copied to all the judges in the age limit case.

 The case

The Supreme Court in a 4:3 majority judgment on Thursday last week dismissed an appeal by three parties who had challenged the constitutional court ruling that had upheld age limit clauses from the constitution by parliament.

The Court held that Justices of the Constitutional Court sitting in Mbale never erred when they ruled that the removal of the age limit for the President was not inconsistent with the Constitution.

Supreme Court justices including the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, Stella Amoko Arachi, Jotham Tumwesigye and Ruby Opio Aweri upheld the constitutional Court judgment whereas the other three dissented.

However, in his petition, Mabirizi says the four justices of the Supreme Court have an attachment to President Museveni who he says was a beneficiary of the age limit amendment.

According to the lawyer, Katureebe was not competent to sit in the age limit appeal at the Supreme Court for being closely related to Museveni leave alone being sick at the time of writing the judgment.

“Having been suffering from infirmity of body for over five weeks preceding the delivery of the purported decision and during its delivery, Katureebe, CJ was not competent to write his purported judgment which he even failed to read to the parties and the public,”Mabirizi says in his petition.

“He was not competent to sit as a Justice in the matter where his close old friend, Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the incumbent president of Uganda, is the biggest beneficiary of the outcome of the appeal.”

The lawyer said Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, was not competent to sit as a judge in the age limit case since her husband, Ambassador Idule Amoko is a diplomatic political appointee of President Museveni, “the biggest beneficiary” of the case’s outcome.

Mabirizi accuses Justice Jotham Tumwebaze of having worked as a director legal affairs at the Movement Secretariat, a political structure whose chairman was Museveni and so is conflicted .

“While serving as Inspector General of Government, Tumwesigye worked closely with Justice Elizabeth Musoke who was one of the majority justices in the Constitutional Court.”