NRM sued over Mbabazi dismissal
Mr Amama Mbabazi
What you need to know:
Mr Alipanga, the petitioner says he is concerned about the manner in which his party [NRM] is being run.
KAMPALA- The National Resistance Movement (NRM) celebrates Christmas today with a decisive legal battle on its table after a citizen challenged the outcome of the party’s recent delegates conference and asked the Constitutional Court to nullify the appointment of key office bearers.
Mr Benjamin Alipanga, 46, a student of Psychology and Education Sciences at Kent University yesterday applied for an interim order of stay asking the Constitutional Court to halt the appointment of Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba, the new Secretary General, Mr Richard Todwong her deputy, Ms Rose Namayanja as party treasurer and Kaberamaido County MP Dr Kenneth Omona as deputy.
The four and the Attorney General are respondents to the petition filed at the country’s court of constitutional interpretation.
Concerned
In his petition Mr Alipanga said: “As a concerned citizen of the country I am not happy with how the country is being governed by my party [NRM]. They brought democracy but are now making a sharp U-turn so I had to do something about it.”
Mr Alipanga is represented by four key law firms led by Mr John Mary Mugisha and Severino Twinobusingye.
Asked whether he was working on behalf of embattled ex-prime minister Mr Amama Mbabazi, who lost his secretary general job, Mr Alipanga insisted he is, “not being used by anyone and this is a legal matter not a personal issue.” Mr Mbabazi has been Mr Twinobusingye’s client before.
In 2013, Mr Twinobusingye petitioned the Constitutional Court and was awarded Shs13b in legal costs, to halt Parliament from compelling Mr Mbabazi to step down as prime minister at the peak of the oil bribery allegations against him and a couple of ministers.
When raised on the matter, Mr Twinobusingye told Daily Monitor yesterday his client is, “challenging the constitutionality of the Kyankwanzi resolution, the manner in which it was popularised and the fact that the Central Executive Committee rejected it but the party chairman spent billions of money to popularise something against the law.”
Their client is also challenging the delegates conference held mid this month, “that was conducted, the summary of it all being that everything can be described as unconstitutional, illegal and against the people of Uganda took place.”
More interestingly, the lawyers contend, Mr Mbabazi was ejected from office on the basis of an inexistent constitution.
Mr Twinobusingye said: “The NRM constitution as we understand it in law is inexistent because it was never made by the party, the constitution is not there the way we understand NRM.”
When contacted for a comment yesterday, Ms Rose Namayanja, the newly nominated party treasurer laughed off the petitioner and wished him a Merry Christmas.
“Our legal team looked at all those issues. There was a petition that sought for an injunction against the conference, there was also the Ruhinda Maguru case around the same delegates conference and court quashed all of them,” she said.
