Court of Appeal to rule on case challenging former Minister Nantaba’s election

The Court of Appeal has said it would deliver its judgment in a case challenging the election of former Minister Aidah Nantaba as the Kayunga Woman MP on notice.

On Tuesday, a panel of three justices including Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Stephen Musota, and Christopher Gashirabake listened to the summary of submissions from both sides.

In their summaries, both parties asked court to adopt their written submissions as their legal arguments in the matter.

“Having listened from all parties, we shall deliver the judgment on notice,” Justice Kiryabwire who spoke on behalf of the other two justices said.

Case

Two appeals were filed challenging Nantaba’s election as the Kayunga Woman Member of Parliament in the 2021 parliamentary election.

In the first appeal, Jackline Kobusingye Birungi, one of the six candidates that Nantaba trounced in the election wants the Court of Appeal to set aside the earlier decision by the High Court that maintained Nantaba as the duly elected Woman MP for Kayunga.

In her arguments, Kobusingye who came third in the contest says it was wrong for the Mukono High Court to uphold Nantaba’s election despite having forged the A-level certificate that she obtained from Mukono Town Academy in 1998 that she used to stand for the position of MP.

Kobusingye also wants the court to throw Nantaba out of parliament for using an O-level certificate issued in 1996 with an initial “E” on the name whereas the A-level certificate only bears the name Nantaba Idah, noting that the documents don’t belong to her.

However, to prove her case, Nantaba brought one of her old students, Denis Nyangweso who is the Samia-Bugwe Central MP as one of her witnesses to show that she went to school.

Nantaba also told the court that the discrepancies in the names at O and A level certificates were rectified in a statutory declaration which was gazetted in the Uganda Gazette on October 2, 2020, to show that they all belong to one person and herself.

In the second case, Ritah Nabadda, a voter in Kayunga ran to the Court of Appeal to challenge a High Court decision that threw out her case in which she challenged Nantaba’s election on grounds of lacking the requisite minimum academic qualifications to be elected an MP.

The High Court threw out the case after Nabadda failed to raise the required 500 signatures from registered voters as required by law for a voter to challenge any person’s victory.

Consequently, Nabadda ran to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision.

Speaking after court on Tuesday, Nantaba said she was aware of the mafia influencing the case but said she was confident of winning.

“Though I won overwhelmingly, the mafia found ways of dragging me to court. I know the mafia is determined to crush me but I trust in God to be on my side. I have confidence in the court and I am sure, the truth will, at last, come out. I will win these cases,” Nantaba said.