Uganda Law Society wrongly kicked Pheona Wall out of race for JSC job - Court rules

The High Court in Kampala has ruled that Uganda Law Society(ULS) was wrong to kick Pheona Wall out of the Judicial Service Commission race.

Wall sued the lawyer's umbrella body and Mr Moses Mwase, the  Chairperson of the Elections

Committee at ULS for allegedly omitting her name from the final nomination list.

In a ruling delivered on Friday, High Court’s Justice Musa Ssekaana ruled that it was wrong for ULS to kick Wall out of the race without according her a fair hearing.

“The respondents tried to make up a semblance of a hearing or fair hearing but it fell far short of the standard of fairness expected of an election body which hold the key to have a transparent electoral process from nomination to elections of the successful candidates,” Ssekaana ruled.

The judge said  Wall  was called on her phone and she appeared at 7:30pm with her husband Ambrose Wall and by 8:00pm left with a decision of denominating her from the process.

“ It appears the calling of the applicant was a mere formality to validate their predetermined decision without any intention of giving the applicant a fair hearing. The principles of fairness are not applied by rote identically in every situation. What fairness demands is dependent on the context of the decision, and this is to be taken into account in all its aspects.”

According to the judge, the decision of the Uganda Law Society  to denominate Wall  by contending that she was nominated in error  was not supported by any evidence.

“It is clear the applicant(Wall) was not invited to explain her alleged inadequacy of 15 years standing through a fair hearing but rather was merely invited for purposes of relaying their decision to denominate her. The said decision of the respondent was irrational and perverse since this was a finding of fact to a material matter which was not supported by any evidence.”

Justice Ssekaana consequently issued an order quashing the decision of the Uganda Law Society to exclude Pheona Wall from the list of nominated candidates for the Judicial Service Commission job.

“ An order of prohibition is issued forbidding the officials of the first st respondent(ULS_  from publishing and circulating defamatory, derogatory and misleading statements against the applicant and interfering with the election process.”

The judge also awarded costs to Wall.