Justice Kisaakye storms out of JSC inquiry meet
Supreme Court Judge Esther Kisaakye after storming out of the meeting at Serena Hotel in Kigo yesterday. PHOTO | STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
- The Supreme Court judge’s lawyer says his client snubbed the meeting after realising that the Commission had deviated from the interface arrangement earlier agreed upon.
Supreme Court Judge Esther Kisaakye, alongside her lawyers, yesterday walked out of a meeting set up by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to listen to her disagreement with Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo.
Justice Kisaakye’s lawyer Peter Walubiri told journalists that his client decided to abandon the said meeting at Serena Hotel in Kigo after realising that the Commission had deviated from the interface arrangement earlier agreed upon.
More reasons
He claimed the said interface meeting instead turned into a hearing of sorts of a case without a formal complaint, charges and witnesses, a move he claimed was intended to waste time.
“An interface means you hear the accused, then the accuser and separately without the two facing each other. But today, it became very clear that there was no legal process being followed and we told the Commission that Justice Kisaakye could not accompany them along a none-constitutional and illegal path,” Mr Walubiri said.
He explained that yesterday’s meeting dates back to the 2021 presidential petition by Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, challenging President Museveni’s win in a case that was being heard by the Supreme Court that saw Justice Kisaakye’s dissenting ruling allegedly confiscated on the orders of the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice has since denied the allegations.
Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, who was part of the meeting, declined to comment on the matter.
Justice Owiny-Dollo also declined to comment about the closed-door meeting, although he briefly confirmed to have had an engagement chaired by the chairperson of the JSC, Justice Benjamin Kabiito.
The meeting with the two justices comes at a time Justice Kisaakye has sued the Chief Justice and almost the entire top Judiciary management.
She accuses them of victimising her by withholding her salary, denying her work, among others.
The JSC has also been sued by Justice Kisaakye, accusing it of commencing investigations against her disguised as a general inquiry without observing any due process and all set procedures under the Constitution.
The petition is majorly about the spill-over events that unfolded in 2021 during the presidential election petition at the Supreme Court.
The Constitutional Court where the petition was filed late last year, has never summoned the warrying parties for any pre-hearing session.
