KCCA sued over Shs400b loan
Parliament in session recently. File Photo
What you need to know:
Illegal. The petitioner says Parliament passed the resolution to borrow the money without quorum.
Kampala. A concerned citizen has sued Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) alongside the Attorney General challenging the manner in which $175 million (about Shs400 billion) was recently passed by Parliament without quorum of one-third.
Mr Moses Muhumuza, a resident of Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb, lodged the petition in the Constitutional Court on December 31, 2014.
In his petition, Mr Muhumuza states that on December 19 last year, Parliament adopted and passed a resolution to allow KCCA borrow from World Bank a loan of $175 million and yet the members present in the House were less than 80.
The petitioner states this abnormality was brought by Busiro East MP Medard Ssegona to the attention of Parliament that was being chaired by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah at the time.
He states that to that effect, Mr Oulanyah adjourned the House for 15 minutes and resumed thereafter by having members present vote and yet the quorum was not one-third.
According to Mr Muhumuza, the money in question is intended to finance the Kampala institutional and infrastructural development projects.
He now wants court to declare that: “the passing of the resolution with members in the House less than the number prescribed by law under Rule 23 of the Parliamentary rules of procedure of the 9th Parliament is in breach of provisions of articles 2 (1) & (2), 88 and 94 of the Constitution and Rule 23 of procedure of Parliament.”
Mr Muhumuza, through his lawyers Kairu & Co Advocates faults KCCA for having resolved and sent a request to Cabinet to borrow the money in question from World Bank very well knowing the Authority is not lawfully constituted as enshrined in sections 6 and 7 of the KCCA Act. Court is yet to receive the defence of KCCA and AG before the matter can be fixed and heard.
Related issue
If this money is annulled, it will be yet another legislation that has been thrown out because Parliament passed it without the required quorum. In July last year, the Constitutional Court annulled the anti-gays law that has been signed into law in February, 2014. It ruled the Bill was passed by MPs without the requisite quorum and was therefore illegal.
