Court summons MP Nsereko over 2021 poll

The High Court in Kampala has summoned Kampala Central Member of Parliament, Muhammad Nsereko to appear and be cross-examined in a 2021 election petition filed by NUP’s Fred Nyanzi.

Nsereko is the only witness mentioned in his response to Nyanzi’s petition which was bounced back for retrial by the Court of Appeal.

The same court, which has fixed 17th and 18th November as trial dates for the petition has further summoned ten EC officials including the Kampala district returning officer, Doreen Musiime to be cross-examined on their involvement in the alleged election malpractices.

Meanwhile, Nsereko’s lawyer, Robert Bautu has sought to have Nyanzi’s 14 witnesses cross-examined, a request trial judge Jessy Byaruhanga has granted.

Nyanzi who has since been penalized to pay Shs38 million in costs to Nsereko after a botched vote re-count in March 2021 accuses the law-maker of conniving with the electoral body to commit several irregularities.

Among these;  is the failure by EC officials to accurately tally results and exclude results of seven polling stations which he (Nyanzi) believes were his strongholds in the final tally.

Nyanzi lost the petition in the High Court after it was dismissed for failure to properly serve Nsereko as prescribed by the Parliamentary Elections Act.

Following the dismissal, Nyanzi believed he had not received substantive justice since the same High Court had declined to grant him an opportunity to serve Nsereko through newspapers as the latter would allegedly play hide and seek.

He then petitioned the Court of Appeal which overturned the High Court’s decision and ordered to conduct a retrial of the petition before another judge.