Bishop Kibuuka disowns out-of-court agreement

KAMPALA. Lawyers representing evangelical Orthodox Church Bishop Jacinto Kibuuka have disowned an out-of-court agreement on account that it was signed by a junior lawyer.

The senior lawyers of the law firm, Wameli and Company Advocates, allege that their counterparts from the opposite side representing the Uganda Catholic Lawyers Society (Ssemwanga, Muwazi & Co Advocates) departed from the original consent and instead duped a junior lawyer, Mr Richard Wananda, to sign the agreement.

They say the Catholic Church lawyers took advantage of Mr Wananda, who had gone to court on Monday to present a different consent agreement to Justice Margaret Oguli-Oumo in another case, and duped him into signing.

Wameli and Company Advocates subsequently petitioned the judge to reverse the purported consent agreement.

“In the result my lord, a consent withdrawal that was never agreed upon between the parties was signed by the said lawyers and endorsed by you. My lord, I have instructions from my client (Bishop Kibuuka) to seek your indulgence so that you recall this withdraw, revise it by setting it aside so that the parties either sign an agreeable consent withdraw or the matter be fixed for hearing,” Bishop Kibuuka’s lawyers state.

Mr Anthony Wameli, Bishop Kibuuka’s lawyer, says in the original consent, they did not agree on the ground that Bishop Kibuuka desists from mimicking the Catholic Church, which ground was later smuggled into the second consent which they say was a misrepresentation.

Mr Wameli argued that if this ground is to be allowed, it would mean that his client Bishop Kibuuka cannot hold any mass that resembles that of the Catholics and he cannot wear the cassock that also resembles that of Catholics. This, he says, if left unchecked, would see his client arrested for going against the consent agreement.

However, yesterday, counsel Fredrick Ssemwanga, the lawyer of the Uganda Catholic Lawyers Society (UCLS), denied duping counsel Wananda into signing the agreement.

He added that despite counsel Wameli not being at court, he was ever in touch with his colleague, Mr Wananda, who kept on updating him on what was happening.

“There was no fraud, no misrepresentation and whatever was in that consent was discussed and their lawyer completed the process by signing on each page before the judge signed. If he had issues with it, then he should have not signed it,” Mr Ssemwanga said by telephone yesterday.

Besides this contentious ground, the parties had also agreed that Bishop Kibuuka withdraws the main case in the High Court against the Uganda Catholic Lawyers Society, MP Joseph Sewungu and Masaka District LC 5 chairperson Jude Mbabaali.
The parties had also agreed not to insult each other’s faith.

MAIN CASE
In the main case, Bishop Kibuuka stated that the then private criminal proceedings instituted against his church at Buganda Road Court were an infringement on his right to practise religion.
Also in his main petition, Bishop Kibuuka was seeking a declaration of court that the utterances and conduct of Catholic lawyers, MP Sewungu and Mr Mbabaali against his religious practices and beliefs infringed on his freedom of worship enshrined in the Constitution.

In July 2016, Archbishop of Kampala, Dr Cyprian Kizito, suspended then Father Kibuuka from conducting prayers for alleged disobedience and resisting a transfer to Ggoli Parish and operating an unuthorised worship centre called Mamre Prayer Centre at Namugongo which was outside his ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Shortly after his suspension, Kibuuka announced defection from the Roman Catholic Church to join the Orthodox Church where he acquired the title of bishop.

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