Kidandala drags feet; to appeal court ruling in case against MP Ssegirinya
The runners up in the Kawempe North election, Suleiman Kidandala has said he is going to appeal against the court ruling that dismissed the petition in which he challenged the election of Muhammad Ssegirinya into parliament.
In the January 14 polls, Kidandala got 7,512 votes against Ssegirinya’s 41,197, prompting the former to run to court for lack of requisite academic qualifications by his rival.
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High Court judge, Henrietta Wolayo on Tuesday morning dismissed the petition challenging Ssegirinya’s election for lack of service.
However, according to Kidandala’s lawyers led by Kenneth Paul Kakande, their client has finalized plans to appeal again the ruling in the Court of Appeal.
“The judge has made a ruling to the effect that the election petition was not effectively served but we have received instructions from our client to appeal against the ruling of the judge,”Kakande said shortly after court.
He explained that it is appalling that having served Ssegirinya while still in police detention at the Central Police Station in Kampala, at Kitalya Prison and on the court’s notice board, the court had dismissed the petition for lack of service.
According to Kidandala’s lawyers, being dissatisfied with the ruling they will challenge the same in a higher court.
“We have decided to move to a higher court to see how it will decide the case. In our understanding, effective service is making the other person know the case against them. I believe this must be analysed by the Court of Appeal.”
Kakande also took a swipe at the Electoral Commission for what he termed as taking over the role of representing Ssegirinya in the case.
“The Electoral Commission took over instructions and is now representing Ssegirinya in the case which raises questions. We don’t know why. “
However, according to the Electoral Commission lawyer, Eric Sabiiti, they realized an error in the petition that he said they could not let go.
“We had to apply to court to make a pronouncement on whether there was effective service which it did today,”Sabiiti said.
