Ssegirinya fails to turn up in court, says he wasn’t served

By Ruth Anderah

Kampala High court judge Henerrieta Wolayo has tasked former Kawempe North parliamentary contender Sulaiman Kindandala to produce proof that MP Muhammad Ssegirinya was indeed served with a copy of his election petition as the law states.

This is after Kindalala’s petition against the triumph of NUP’s Muhammad Ssegirinya came up today for a hearing before the court.

In court, it was the Electoral Commission’s lawyer Edwin Tabaro who shot up first to inform the judge that there is no pending petition against Ssengirinya who was not personally served with the petition.

Tabaro explained that even though the Electoral Commission is mandated to defend the fairness of an election it has conducted, at this stage, it becomes so hard to do so because non-service means there is no substantive petition before the court to defend.

Ssegirinya made a no show in court nor did he even bother to send a lawyer on grounds that he is not aware that there was a petition against him.

The judge was forced to adjourn the hearing of the petition to September 2nd to enable parties to urge the application of effective service to finality.

However, in response, Kindandala’s lawyer Kenneth Paul Kakande told the court that he obtained an order of substituted service to either pin a copy of the petition on a public notice board or serve Ssegirinya through the OC of Kitalya prison where he had been remanded to on charges of inciting violence.

But justice Wolayo asked Kakande if he had included the above information in his filed affidavit of proof of service but he could not ably do so.

Kindandala dragged Ssegirinya to court accusing him of lacking the Ordinary and Advances ‘ level of academic qualifications which would require him to ably represent the people of Kawempe North constituency in parliament.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna