Court dismisses petition against NCHE, UNEB, EC and Nabeta

The Jinja High Court has dismissed a petition that was filed by Paul Mwiru the Jinja east Member of Parliament against the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE), Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) and the Electoral Commission (EC) for endorsing Nathan Igeme Nabeta to contest for the seat.

This was during a court session presided over by the judge Patricia Basaza where the case was dismissed with costs. Both Mwuiru and Igeme were present in court.

Mwiru belongs to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party while Igeme belongs to the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM).

While reading her judgment, she told court that all allegations were false, malicious and irregular. She explained that there was no empirical evidence because NCHE and UNEB did their work.

"It is the mandate of the NCHE and UNEB to verify and validate and academic documents according to the 2015 legal notice of NCHE, the applicant has right to question the papers but not to reject them.

This is the duty of the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) because it is the one responsible for setting pass parks at all levels," she noted.

Basaza explained that Los Angeles College in the USA where Igeme studied for the equivalent of A' Level and the University of Oklahoma where he did a degree in Science in Business Administration had the mandate to deny him but have not come up to do so.

"As the High Court we have also made wider consultations and both the college and university and no experts have come up to deny the papers. Mwiru as a voter and the current Member of Parliament has no right to query the papers but it's only the NCHE and the NCDC" she noted.

She further explained that any other body responsible to query the documents was the court in case they are alleged to be illegal or doubted. Asuman Nyonitono of Arcadia Advocates who represented Nabeta noted that both parties will sit and come up with the costs.

Mwiru who was represented by Peter Walubiri said he respects the judgment of the High Court but he will petition the court of appeal.

"I am going to appeal the matter even up to the Supreme Court because there has been a lot of injustice and unfairness in handling the petition," he explained.

However Mwiru who alleged that the High Court was paid sh400m to make the ruling in favor of Nabeta explained that bribing the judiciary will make people lose trust in courts of law.