Court set to hear Zaake dismissal appeal in June
Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake (right) and his lawyer Erias Lukwago address the media after petitioning the Constitutional Court challenging his dismissal as Commissioner of Parliament on March 17, 2022. PHOTO | ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- In his petition, Mr Zaake indicated that the impugned resolution was passed without quorum in the House in contravention of the Constitution and the parliamentary Rules of Procedure.
The Constitutional Court in Kampala has set June 16 as the hearing date for the case in which Mityana Municipality lawmaker Francis Zaake petitioned the Court of Appeal against his dismissal from the position of Commissioner of Parliament.
In March, Mr Zaake petitioned the Constitutional Court seeking its declaration to, among others, overturn his removal from the position of commissioner of Parliament for allegedly insulting then Deputy Speaker Anita Among on social media.
In his petition, Mr Zaake indicated that the impugned resolution was passed without quorum in the House in contravention of the Constitution and the parliamentary Rules of Procedure.
He also alleged that each member of Parliament’s Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline, who participated in his removal, received Shs6m.
The ex-gratia payment of Shs6m to each member of the committee, he added, was a reward for their participation in the committee’s proceedings.
His lawyers say this is not only prejudicial to the petitioner, but it imposed an illegal charge on the Consolidated Fund in contravention of the Constitution.
The court has, however, not set the date for hearing the matter, saying it needed to first clear the backlog of election petitions.
In March, 155 legislators voted to remove Mr Zaake from the Parliamentary Commission. After two weeks of investigation, the Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Discipline recommended that Mr Zaake apologises to the House.
It held that the conduct of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party legislator was not proper and that it amounted to misbehaviour and misconduct. This recommendation was, however, reviewed for a censure motion that was overwhelmingly adopted by the House.
This publication exclusively reported about the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) directive to its human rights committee to send a delegation to Uganda to launch fresh investigations into circumstances under which Mr Zaake ceased being a commissioner of Uganda’s legislative body.
The Geneva-based assembly of national parliaments—to which Uganda is a signatory—made the recommendation following a sitting on March 24.
Mr Erias Lukwago, the Lord Mayor of Kampala, who is the lead counsel in the case, said his team of lawyers are ready to argue out their case in the court.
