Expelled MPs' case: Supreme Court rules Thursday

By Hillary Nsambu

The Supreme Court will on Thursday rule whether the MPs expelled from the ruling party, NRM should retain their seats in Parliament pending the hearing and final disposal of their constitutional appeal.

 This followed an application for temporary orders restraining the Speaker of Parliament from ejecting them and the Electoral Commission from hold by-elections in their respective constituencies as the Constitutional Court had ordered.

On a 4-1 majority judgment, late last month, the Constitutional Court ordered the MPs to leave Parliament. It also ordered the Electoral Commission to organize by-election in their respective constituencies.

The four troubled MPs are Theodore Ssekikubo, Mohammed Nsereko, Barnabas Tinkasimire and Wilfred Niwagaba.  

Peter Mukidi Walubiri and Caleb Alaka, who submitted on behalf of a group of lawyers representing the four MPs, argued that the MPs like other citizens had a constitutional right of appeal, which has a high likelihood of success and as such they should not be condemned unheard.

The lawyers also submitted by asking the court to stop the Speaker of Parliament and the EC chairman from implementing the orders and directives of the Constitutional Court, the appellants were exercising their constitutional rights.

They said that they had also filed an application in court for a permanent injunction in which they seek for orders permanently restraining the Parliament and the EC from implementing the orders before the main appeal is heard. 

The opposing lawyers opposed the application, saying that what the applicants wanted to preserve had already been implemented and that there was no status quo to preserve. 

Earlier, Justice George Wilson Kanyeihamba, who used to lead the lawyers representing the expelled MPs expressed great disappointment for being removed from the group without being informed. He described the move by the appellants as a coup- de-etat . The court, however, remarked that he should not have discussed his misunderstandings with his lawyers in public.