Kawempe North byelection: Hearing starts Wednesday

KAMPALA - The hearing of a petition in which the ruling National Resistance Movement candidate, Faridah Nambi, is challenging the Kawempe Division North byelection for the Member of Parliament seat starts today, April 30, 2025.

The case is before Justice Bernard Namanya of the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala.

Nambi, who was the first runner-up among the ten contenders, initially secured 8,593 votes, which were later revised to 9,058, as indicated in the notice published in the Uganda Gazette by the Electoral Commission.

The election was won by the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate, Elias Nalukoola Luyimbazi, who had received 17,764 votes, later adjusted to 17,939 according to the Gazette notice.

The other candidates included: Sadat Mukiibi aka Khalifah Aganaga (FDC), Henry Kasacca Mubiru (DP), Ismail Mubiru (DP), Ismail Musiitwa (PPP), Muhammed Lusswa Luwemba (independent), Hanifah Karadi Murewa (independent), Mahamood Mutuzindwa (independent), Moses Nsereko (independent), and Stanley Edward Maitum Engena (independent).

On March 24, 2025, the Electoral Commission published the results in the Uganda Gazette, officially confirming Nalukoola as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Kawempe North.

Nalukoola took the oath of office two days after his by-election victory was gazetted by the Electoral Commission.

He replaces the late Muhammad Ssegirinya, who passed away in January this year before completing his term as MP.

Nalukoola was sued alongside the Electoral Commission.

In her petition filed on April 11, 2025, Nambi seeks a declaration that there was non-compliance with the provisions of the Parliamentary Elections Act relating to elections, specifically citing failure to conduct the election in accordance with the provisions laid down in the Act, and that the failure and non-compliance substantially affected the results of the election. 

Nambi contends that although voting took place within the regular time of 7:00am to 4:00pm, the Electoral Commission failed to return the results of fourteen polling stations with a total of 16,640 registered voters, yet declared final results of the election contrary to the law.

In rebuttal, Nalukoola states that the results marked as 0% by the EC on the result tally sheet were from only 14 polling stations out of the 97% of polling stations in the entire constituency.

He asserts that the general voter turnout for the contested election, based on the 83 polling stations considered by the EC, was 14.4%.

“Whether or not the results from the impugned polling stations are included, going by the voting trend and patterns in the general election, Nalukoola would still be the winning candidate in so far as the winning margin would not be affected substantially even if the petitioner won in the majority of the impugned polling stations,” reads court documents in part.

Nalukoola denies that he did not campaign among voters who turned up to vote at Mbogo Primary School playground or any other location, as alleged by Nambi on polling day.

He contends that his campaign in the impugned election ended on 11 March 2025, in accordance with the electoral guidelines issued by the EC.