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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The High Court in Kampala has dismissed a suit challenging the extension of the tenure of the leaders of the Justice Forum-Jeema, including its president, Asuman Basalirwa.
High Court judge Simon Peter Kinobe, in dismissing the suit, said the applicants had filed it outside the legally allowed time of three months.
“Upon studying the application and the affidavits in support, it is clear that the facts giving rise to this application first arose on the 8th of October 2020. It is therefore my finding that this application should have been filed within three months from the 8th of October 2020 for it to have been filed within the time limit set by the law,” Kinobe’s ruling reads in part.
“I also note that this rule grants this court extensive jurisdiction to enlarge the time within which an application should be made, for good reason. For the court to enlarge time, the applicant should make an application for extension of time within which to file an application, giving justifiable reasons as to why it was unable to comply with the timelines provided by the law. The applicants herein made no effort whatsoever to apply for enlargement of time and validation of their application… I therefore find that this application was filed out of time and accordingly dismiss it with costs to the respondents.”
This ruling followed an application filed by former party leaders led by Abdulnoor Kyamundu Ssentongo, the former spokesperson, challenging the decision of the National Executive Committee of the party to defer the delegates’ conference and instead extend the tenure of current party leaders to three years. Those sued include the party, its president Asuman Basalirwa, who is also the Bugiri municipality MP, Muhammad Kibirige Mayanja, the party chairman, and Muhammad Kateregga, the Secretary General.
In their application, Kyamundu and others wanted the court to declare that the term of the current office holders expired but was extended illegally. They also wanted the court to appoint one of them as the interim national chairperson to preside over the election of the party’s electoral commission chairperson to carry out elections for new office bearers. They also wanted to be compensated with UGX 100 million for the violation of their rights and freedom when they were kicked out of the party’s media platforms.
However, in his affidavit, Kateregga asked the court to dismiss the application on the ground that it had been filed out of time. He told the court that the decisions being complained of were taken in 2020, with some of the applicants present in the meeting. If they were aggrieved about them, they should have applied then.
The judge agreed with this reasoning, dismissing the suit with costs. He said, having found that the application was filed out of time, there was no need to go into the other issues raised by the applicants.
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