Niwagaba rubbishes NRM petition on rebel MPs

Jun 15, 2013

Expelled NRM rebel MP Wilfred Niwagaba (Ndorwa East), has rubbished the constitutional petition filed by the party seeking to have him and three other colleagues vacate Parliament.

By Andante Okanya  

Expelled NRM rebel MP Wilfred Niwagaba (Ndorwa East), has rubbished the constitutional petition filed by the party seeking to have him and three other colleagues vacate Parliament.

In his response to the petition filed on June 7 at the Constitutional Court in Kampala, Niwagaba acknowledges that although he was sponsored by NRM in the February 2011 polls, allowing the petition to succeed would be malicious to the people of Ndorwa East.

"The orders sought by the party if granted will be an infringement on the people of Ndorwa East. I agree that I was  sponsored by  NRM to contest for the Ndorwa East  seat in 2011 but I was overwhelmingly voted through universal adult suffrage by registered voters of Ndorwa East," the petition states in his affidavit.

Through Alaka and Company Advocates, Niwagaba contends that as a qualified lawyer, he is aware that parties are not represented in Parliament but constituencies.  He asserts that he is still an ardent supporter of the party, and a believer in its good objectives, mission and vision.

Additionally, Niwagaba  states that he has never been recalled by his electorate, neither has Parliament been dissolved  nor has he been elected to public office, all which are circumstances that form grounds to declare his seat vacant.

The NRM petition was prompted by Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga's ruling early last month, when she rejected NRM's demand to notify the Electoral Commission that the rebel MPs seats had become vacant. She said no specific provision in the Constitution on the expulsion of MPs by their political parties, leads to declaring of their seats in parliament vacant.

The other expelled MPs are Barnabas Tinkasimire (Buyaga County), Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga county), and Mohammed Nsereko (Kampala central). Government chief legal advisor the Attorney General is listed as their co-respondent. Tinkasimire is the other MP who has so far replied to the petition.

But NRM in its petition asserts that the expelled MPs are strangers who should be denied access to Parliament, as they are not recognised, since they have no identity.

Prior, hearing flopped on June 4 when NRM lawyers stunned court when they queried whether one of the rebel MPs lawyers, retired Supreme Court judge George Kanyeihamba, possessed a practicing certificate.

Kanyeihamba has since acquired a certificate dated June 4, 2013, and it was filed at the court on June 5.

 

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