Kampala. Justice Esther Kisakye is up in arms against the Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny-Dollo for allegedly ordering the confiscation of her file containing her minority ruling on the Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu presidential election petition.
It all started shortly after the nine-member panel of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny-Dollo delivered its detailed judgment explaining why they okayed the withdraw of Kyagulanyi’s petition challenging the victory of president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. They also ordered each party namely Museveni, Electoral Commission and Attorney General to meet its own costs of the suit.
Immediately after delivering their detailed ruling, the Chief Justice said the court would break off and reconvene at 1:30 pm without giving any reason. This prompted the Registrar to follow the Chief Justice to his Chambers to find out whether he made the announcement in error or there was still pending business.
Court reconvened around 2:30 pm. However, the respondent’s lawyers led by the Attorney General William Byaruhanga were summoned to the chambers for consultations on an unknown matter. They returned shortly after meeting that didn’t take long, packed their belongings and hastily left the court premises.
Shortly after, a judicial official came and ordered the team from Photo Genix Company, which was contracted to erect a tent and provide quality sound to the court to disconnect their equipment as Justice Kisakye looked on since she had remained alone on the bench.
She told journalists that the full panel was supposed to reconvene. She later revealed that she didn’t have her file but said that she wouldn’t reveal internal matters. However, after sitting for about 15 minutes on the bench alone, she broke her silence, saying that her file had been confiscated on the orders of the Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo for unknown reasons.
Kyagulanyi’s lawyer, Samuel Muyizi who had remained in court, said this was the first time he was experiencing such an incident. Minutes later everyone was ejected from the courtroom amidst tight security by counter-terrorism police when Kisakye left to search for her missing file.
The Judiciary Spokesperson, Solomon Muyita had just started explaining to journalists what was going on when Justice Kisakye returned, saying that she had failed to trace her file. Nevertheless, she went ahead to start reading her ruling, saying that she had managed to access her draft copy.
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