Wakayima confirmed as Nansana MP

The High Court in Kampala has upheld the election of Hannington Wakayima Musoke Nsereko of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party as the Member of Parliament for Nansana Municipality.

Mr Wakayima’s January 14 victory had been challenged by Mr Hamis Musoke Walusimbi (Independent) on grounds of lack of requisite academic papers. 
Mr Walusimbi had also accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of non compliance, citing omissions that he reckoned substantially affected the outcome of the poll.

But in her judgment yesterday, Justice Henrietta Wolayo held that Mr Wakayima “was lawfully nominated because he was not only a citizen and a registered voter, but he also possessed the required academic qualifications of Uganda Certificate of Education and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education.”
 The judge also ordered Mr Walusimbi to pay the legal costs Mr Wakayima.
Mr Walusimbi based his petition on the Court of Appeal’s ruling that threw Mr Wakayima out of Parliament during the last election cycle.
 
The court, which is the final court in parliamentary and local council election disputes, ruled then that there were discrepancies in Mr Wakayima’s names and academic documents. 
Justice Wolayo, however, did not agree with this argument, reasoning that Mr Wakayima has since sworn in a poll deed, changing his name from Musoke Hannington. This, she said, removed the discrepancies in his names and academic papers that had been pointed out by the Court of Appeal.

“No one has turned up to claim to be Musoke Hannington and neither has anyone turned up to claim they know of Musoke Hannington who is being impersonated by the first respondent (Mr Wakayima),” Justice Wolayo ruled.
She added: “These findings lead me to one conclusion: that is the petitioner (Mr Walusimbi) has failed to satisfy me that the first respondent (Mr Wakayima) was wrongly nominated when he did not possess academic qualifications.
In the January 14 poll, the EC returned Mr Wakayima with 67,872 votes. NRM’s Robert Sebunya placed second with 15,357 votes while Mr Walusimbi came in a distant third with 744 votes.

Background
Mr Walusimbi based his petition on the Court of Appeal’s ruling that threw Mr Wakayima out of Parliament during the last election cycle. 
The court, which is the final court in parliamentary and local council election disputes, ruled then that there were discrepancies in Mr Wakayima’s names and academic documents.