Mwondha court petition hearing starts

Jul 14, 2009

THE petitioners backing embattled Inspector General of Government (IGG) yesterday accused MPs of illegally constituting themselves into a tribunal to declare her occupancy of office unconstitutional.

Mwondha court case starts
By Anne Mugisa
and Hilary Nsambu


THE petitioners backing embattled Inspector General of Government (IGG) yesterday accused MPs of illegally constituting themselves into a tribunal to declare her occupancy of office unconstitutional.

Their lawyer, George Omunyokol, also told the Constitutional Court that the MPs and the Attorney General were attempting to amend the Constitution without following procedure.

They said the two organs tried to force Faith Mwondha to appear before the appointments committee of Parliament, when the Constitution does not say so.

The arguments were made during the hearing of the petition of 22 citizens who are challenging the MPs’ mandate to re-vet the IGG for re-appointment.

Five justices of the Constitutional Court heard the petition. They included Mpagi Bahigeine, George Engwau, Christine Kitumba, Constance Byamugisha and Augustine Nshimye.

But the Attorney General asked the court to throw out the petition, saying it was ill-conceived and the IGG had to appear for re-vetting on being re-appointed.

The acting director of civil litigation, Robinah Rwakoojo, who represented the Attorney General, rejected the argument that MPs constituted themselves into a tribunal.
“She was given a hearing in her absence. She wrote to them that she was not coming, but they waited and when she did not come, they made their decision.”

However, Omunyokol said they overshot their mandate, arguing that they should have only considered the fact that she did not turn up but went ahead to make judgments as to the legality of her occupation of office and her actions while she was in that office.

He said the Attorney General erroneously quoted the wrong article, 253 for MPs to re-vet the IGG. “This article refers to someone who had vacated office which was not the case here,” Omunyokol argued.

He said the intention of the drafters of the Constitution was that there should be no need to return to Parliament for re-approval in order to guard the independence of the ombudsman.

Otherwise, the IGG who had powers to remove the MPs could be victimised and that she had even investigated some of the MPs, Omunyokol added.
Rwakoojo said President Yoweri Museveni re-appointed Mwondha in error, but his sending her name to Parliament for vetting was intended to correct that error.

Some of the petitioners and former MP Ken Lukyamuzi, were in the court.

Lukyamuzi accuses Mwondha of unfairly removing him from Parliament in 2006 after he failed to declare his wealth.

Meanwhile, Mwondha remains out of office until the case is disposed of.
Mwondha’s deputy, Raphael Baku, is the acting IGG on recommendation from the President.

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