Prime
Justice Ssekaana slams Court of Appeal over conflicting panel decisions
High Court Judge Musa Ssekaana
What you need to know:
- Justice Ssekaana said such conflicting decisions make it difficult for the lower courts to follow which precedent.
The head of the Civil Division of the High Court Musa Ssekaana has slammed his colleagues at the Court of Appeal for issuing conflicting judgments on similar disputes.
Justice Ssekaana said such conflicting decisions make it difficult for the lower courts to follow which precedent.
“Court of Appeal have been issuing different precedents and this has seen different lawyers coming with different precedents. One lawyer at one time said we should always consider the latest decisions,” Justice Ssekaana said yesterday during the induction of the members of the Tax Appeals Tribunal in Kampala.
He added: “We in the lower courts if we are faced such conflicting decisions from the Court of Appeal, I would rather not follow any and nobody will castigate me for not following any.”
He thereafter asked members of the Tribunal not to issue contradictory decisions.
Justice Ssekaana, however, did not provide examples of such decisions.
Examples
But in the aftermath of hearing of the parliamentary election petitions of 2016 general polls, some lawyers complained about the same issue.
They cited the panel then headed by Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma that upheld the High Court ruling, which had thrown out Nansana Municipality MP Nsereko Wakayima Musoke out of Parliament.
The other justices were Cheborion Barishaki and Hellen Obura.
The three justices agreed with High court judge Vincent Okwanga that Mr Wakayima did not qualify to stand for the position of MP on grounds that he was not a registered voter and therefore, never qualified for nomination and eventual election.
The justices observed that the name Wakayima that was used in his nomination was nowhere on the voter’s register, instead it was his name of Musoke Hannington Nsereko which appeared on his national identification card.
The justices agreed with Justice Okwanga and declared NRM’s Robert Kasule Sebunya, who came second, as the validly elected MP for Nansana Municipality.
When another panel still led by Justice Kavuma, Barishaki and Paul Mugamba was met with a similar scenario, they ruled differently. In this other appeal, the controversy was around the names of NRM’s Taban Idi Amin, the Kibanda North MP. The discrepancies saw Mr Amin interchangeably use names like Idi Taban Amin Tampo on the national voters’ register and national identification card, then Taban Idi Amin on the nomination form and academic documents while his passport had Idi Taban Amin.
The judges ordered for a by-election, unlike in the Wakayima case.
