Kavuma remains tight-lipped on nullified interim orders

DCJ KAVUMA DECLINES TO COMMENT ON NULLIFIED INTERIM ORDERS

By Hillary Nsambu

Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma has said that he has no comment about the ruling nullifying all the interim orders issued by a single justice or three justices of the Constitutional Court that he heads.

"You know how we operate. I have no comment on the matter," Kavuma told New Vision when contacted on his mobile for an interview on the issue on Saturday afternoon.

On Thursday, a panel of three Justices sitting as a Constitutional Court ruled that all interim orders that were issued by a single justice or three justices of the Constitutional Court are null and void and of no effect.

The court that was presided over by Justices Kenneth Kakuru, Fred Egonda-Ntende and Elizabeth Musoke also ruled that all the more than 200 pending interim orders must be heard by the court's full quorum of five justices for a ruling to be of any effect.

The ruling meant that all the interim orders that had been already made or issued and were still in force, were stopped forthwith and no longer mean anything effective now and in future.

In an interview, spokesperson of the Judiciary, Elias Omar Kisawuzi said that the Constitutional Court is mandated to interpret the Constitution and that is exactly what they did.

Kisawuzi, who is also the registrar of the Judicial Studies Institute (JSI), an institute for enhancing all the judges' jurisprudence or their scientific study of law, further told New Vision that what the court did by interpreting the Constitution is now the law.

However, Fred Muwema, a private practicing lawyer, said; "by a stroke of a pen, the Constitutional Court has now erased its own wealth of jurisprudence developed in this area which in my view had been well founded. I am of the considered opinion that this decision is not based on interpretation which promotes the legislative purpose of the Law".

"According to the decision, all interim orders issued by a single Justice or three Justices of the Constitutional Court are null and void and of no effect as already indicated above" he said.

"It would appear to me that going by the same reasoning of the Court; their decision is also null and void since it was issued by 3 instead of the 5 Justices they recommend. Perhaps the 3 Justices should have referred the matter to 5 Justices for a decision to be binding in the Constitutional Court" Muwema added.