The Constitutional Court will today deliver its ruling on whether to block the final approval of NRM’s new office bearers by Central Executive Committee (CEC). The ruling was reserved for today at 11:30am after the presiding Acting Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma heard lengthy arguments for and against the grant of the interim injunction that ended at 8:30pm last evening. NRM had indicated that CEC would sit today and approve the new office bearers; Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba new Secretary General who replaced former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and her deputy, Mr Richard Todwong. Ms Rose Namayanja the party National treasurer and Dr Kenneth Omona her deputy. By press time, it was not clear whether the ruling party top organ CEC sitting at State House Entebbe and chaired by President Museveni had not deliberated on the matter and approved the appointees ahead of the National Executive Committee which sits today. Mr Todwong, Ms Namayanja, and Mr Omona were present in court and closely followed the proceedings the whole of yesterday’s afternoon and evening. But during the lengthy submissions, Mr Kiryowa Kiwanuka, the lead lawyer who represented NRM, asked Mr Mbabazi to lodge his complaints of abuse of rights to the High Court. Mr Kiwanuka advised Mr Mbabazi while responding to the submissions of the petitioner’s host of lawyers led by Mr John Mary Mugisha. Mr Kiwanuka further submitted that the Constitutional Court was not the right court to handle abuse of rights. Mr Mugisha had among others issues submitted that the December 15, 2014 NRM delegates’ conference was purely aimed at relieving Mr Mbabazi of his duties as SG, a move he said was illegal. “The Namboole meeting was only aimed at eliminating one person who is Amama Mbabazi from his position of Secretary General,” Mr Mugisha argued. The submissions were made in response to an application in which a concerned NRM member Benjamin Alipanga, who sued NRM and the new four appointees, was seeking for an interim injunction from court to block them from assuming their duties today. However, Mr Kiwanuka rebutted this with a lengthy explanation of how the three main issues that Mr Alipanga is challenging; the four new NRM appointees, popularisation of the Kyankwanzi resolution of sole candidacy of President Museveni and the Seninde report, came into being. On the issue of the new appointees to be blocked from taking office; Mr Kiwanuka, elaborated how the four seats of the top NRM leaders fell vacant on December 19, last year. He said the seats of Mr Mbabazi, Ms Amelia Kyambadde, Mr Singh Katongole and Ms Dorothy Huhya fell vacant after the amendment of the NRM Constitution on December 15, and the same was gazetted by the Electoral Commission. The amendments saw President Museveni, the party chairman, given powers to appoint the members of the secretariat as opposed to being voted for. The petitioner, Mr Alipanga, challenges this as against rule of law and democracy. Mr Kiwanuka wondered why Mr Alipanga had come out at this time, a year after the Kyankwanzi resolution had already been passed and President Museveni already been popularised. “Indeed, the four respondents have confirmed popularising the 17 Kyankwanzi resolutions including the sole candidacy and in fact, they are very popular…” Mr Kiwanuka said attracting cheers from a fully-packed courtroom. He also argued that the Seninde report had also been implemented by the NRM and hence there is nothing to stop as prayed for by Mr Alipanga. The issue of conflict of interest of two of Mr Alipanga’s lawyers; Mr Mugisha and Mr Severino Twinobusingye, who had earlier represented the NRM in the expelled NRM ‘rebel’ MPs’ case arose. The defence team argued that they should not be allowed to represent Mr Alipanga. However, Mr Fred Muwema, Mr Alipanga’s other lawyer argued that the Advocates Act allows the two lawyers to represent Mr Alipanga on grounds that this is a new matter and there is no confidential information they are hiding that they got from NRM that will be sub judice in this case. Regarding the issue of balance of convenience, Mr Ahmed Kalule from NRM side argued that Mr Alipanga seeks to freeze the activities of the NRM secretariat which is the heart of the NRM’s administration unit. He said the balance of convenience tilts on the NRM side as opposed to one party member. After hearing the lengthy submissions that ended at 8pm last night, presiding judge Kavuma said he will give his ruling by 11am today. New leaders proposed On December 22, 2014, NRM shook up its core leadership as a follow up of the resolutions of the national delegates conference held in Namboole on December 15, that changed the party’s Constitution and mandated the party chairman to directly appoint the party executive with the approval of the National Executive Committee. As such, the party’s top decision making organ, the Central Executive Committee approved the nomination of Ms Justine Lumumba (pictured), the government chief whip, to the position of secretary general. The changes created more space in the Cabinet as some of these office bearers, once approved by NEC will have to step down.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 04:19:00 +0000
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