Court okays petition on Mbabali’s papers

MASAKA. The High Court in Masaka has allowed to hear an election petition that seeks to challenge the academic qualifications of Bukoto South MP Muhammad Muyanja Mbabali.
Mr Mbabali, who contested on the NRM ticket, won the seat after defeating three contestants, including Democratic Party’s secretary general Mathias Nsubuga.
Ms Gertrude Nakabira, a former Lwengo District Woman MP, who also contested against Mr Mbabali, petitioned court challenging his nomination on account that he lacked the required academic qualifications to contest as Member of Parliament.

In November last year, Ms Nakabira applied to Masaka High Court, seeking to block Mr Mbabali’s nomination by the Electoral Commission (EC), but the hearing was stayed after the presiding judge John Eudes Keitirima, adjourned the case to February 15 this year. In February, he could not hear the case because he went on leave.
When it came up for the hearing last month, Justice Keitirima dismissed the application on account that it had been overtaken by events because Mr Mbabali had already been elected.

Ms Nakabira instructed her lawyer, Mr Asuman Basalirwa, to file a fresh application asking court to allow her file a petition challenging Mr Mbabaali’s election on academic grounds.
Ms Nakabira alleged that the mature age entry certificate from Makerere University and an Ordinary Level certificate which Mr Mbabali is said to have presented to EC are not genuine documents and need to be scrutinised.
Mr Mbabali’s lawyer, Mr Caleb Alaka, asked court to dismiss the application because his client had already been cleared by the relevant authorities which verified his academic papers.
Mr Alaka further argued that the mandatory 30 days after election, within which an election petition can be filed, had already elapsed.

Visiting High Court Judge Margaret Tibulya on Thursday granted Ms Nakabira two weeks to allow her file the petition.
Mr Basalirwa welcomed the ruling, saying it would have been an insult to the electorate of Bukoto South if court had dismissed the application. “This is a matter that touches the academic qualifications of a person who is a legislator, so it is only fair that his academic papers are subjected to proper scrutiny and this could only be allowed by court,” he said.