Democratic Party (DP) president, Norbert Mao, is one of the key opposition leaders who attended the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD) presided over by President Yoweri Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairman today at the Kololo Independence grounds.

Mao described the IPOD summit as a rare opportunity to find solutions to problems affecting Uganda.

“The spirit required from IPOD members is the spirit to put Uganda first. Violence should be condemned. We should use persuasion rather than coercion. We should look for common ground. We don’t want a situation where all interests are mutually exclusive,” Mao said.

“Governments can come and go but the state needs to be protected. In some countries like Italy, governments are always falling but the state never collapses. IPOD is not about protecting any government. It is about the State. Uganda is the only country we have. We may have a plan B but we don’t have a country B,” the DP president added.

Relatively, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) president, Jimmy Akena, while at the same function, also urged all Ugandans not to ignore the need to come together for dialogue in case of any differences.

“I urge all my colleagues not to lose sight of the greatest prize of all this. The greatest prize is how we shall leave Uganda. We need to strive towards raising the standards of living for every citizen. Ultimately as UPC, we would like to leave Uganda in a better place. We shall do everything in our power to achieve this. I am all in for dialogue and I hope all our colleagues will join us in this venture,” Akena said.

“Despite some of our colleagues not being present, we have been able to capture concerns and raise all our concerns at this summit. We thank the President for promising to look into the issues we raised,” he added.

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretary General (SG), Justine Kasule Lumumba, said the IPOD under President Museveni’s chairmanship, has agreed to adopt the principle of a multi-stakeholder dialogue on national issues.

“The principle adopted today is aimed at answering political questions lingering among Ugandan as the elders’ forum and other platforms handle the sematic areas as agreed before,” Lumumba said.

President Museveni, while delivering his address after the summit, stated that the NRM government had long spotted the political problems of the country and devised solutions for them.

“Politics is like medicine where you have a doctor who diagnoses the sickness of the patient by looking at the symptoms and carrying out tests. Once the doctor has diagnosed the sickness, he prescribes treatment,” Museveni said.

He added; “Healthy politics is like that. When we were still students, we started a new force. In it, our social-economic diagnosis was eventually captured in the four principles of the NRM. These are patriotism, Pan-Africanism, social-economic development, and democracy. We are always ready to explain and also listen to the explanation of others. Unfortunately, some people have abandoned dialogue.”

IPOD was formed in 2010 by the political parties represented in parliament. It’s mandated to consolidate multi-party democracy through dialogue.

However, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), JEEMA and other political parties on the country boycotted it, saying they were not given ample time to discuss the agenda of the summit.

By Baron Kironde

Medard Lubega Sseggona, the lead counsel to National Unity Platform (NUP) former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has revealed that they are in talks with president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s lawyers over Supreme Court presidential petition withdraw costs.

Ssegona told the nine justices of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo that they kicked off the talks on the matter today (Friday) morning.

“My lords, today morning, we talked to lawyers of the 1st Respondent about the costs but they were not as positive yet,” Ssegona said.

He submitted to Court that he knows very well that it’s very clear in the laws and regulations of the presidential petition that whenever the petitioner seeks to withdraw his petition, he or she has to bear the costs of the respondents.

He further told the Court that its explanatory that the withdrawal of the petition means that the 1st Respondent (Museveni) won the 2021 presidential elections and no one is challenging his victory.

Sseggona explained that the petition was filed in Court by his client on behalf of many Ugandans for the good of national democracy and good governance and he must not be punished.

He insisted that the petition was a public interest matter.

He pleaded with Court that it will be unfair for them to use their powers to slap costs on his client, who is a normal Ugandan, to foot the legal bills of a declared president of the Country.

On the side of the 2nd Respondent (Electoral Commission), Ssegona protested the prayer for costs made by Commissioner Stephen Tashobya in his affidavit supporting the withdrawal of the petition.

In his affidavit, Tashobya told the Court that they incurred huge costs to hire Kampala’s top law firm, Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA) that is why the petitioner has to foot the legal bills.

In his submission, Sseggona told Court that there was no proper procedure followed by the Electoral Commission when hiring KAA as required by law.

He insisted that the Electoral Commission is a government institution which needs to follow the public procuring procedures.

In his response, Edwin Karugire, Museveni’s lawyer told Court that due to the scandalous behaviour of the petitioner, he has to pay them costs.

He told Court that Bobi Wine exhibited an errant behaviour against the judiciary when he said that it is not independent, biased and incompetent yet it has saved him several times when he ran there for justice.

He cited the Moses Kibalama case and the case where court directed security to leave his home after the elections.

Karugire told court that with all those successes Bobi Wine continues to attack the Judiciary yet he failed to prosecute his petition which means that he is a bad loser.

KAA’s Elison Karuhanga rubbished Ssegona’s submissions that the Electoral Commission didnt follow the public procurement procedures when hiring them.

He branded Bobi Wine’s lawyer Ushaka Ssekajja as ignorant about the public procurement thus he cannot give advice to the Court.

He also supported Karugire’s submission that Bobi Wine has been a scandalous litigant who must be punished with costs due to his intentional public attack on judiciary without following the necessary procedures stipulated in Court rules.

William Byaruhanga, the Attorney General who represented the 3^rd Respondent asked court to find ways of handing reckless petitioners of the presidential petition since this is a very serious matter. He agreed with fellow petitioners not to object to the withdrawal of the petition which Court allows.

On the issue of Costs, Justices Stella Arach Amoko who read the ruling stated that it will be noticed in the detailed ruling. Bobi Wine withdrew his petition citing unfairness of the judiciary after they declined to accept his additional evidence and amendment of his petition.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

The Supreme Court has Friday March 5^th, 2021 granted National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi leave to withdraw a petition he had filed challenging president Yoweri Museveni’s re-election.

Bobi Wine filed the petition early last month,  challenging the results of the January 14 presidential elections, but on February 26^th  wrote an application to the Supreme Court seeking permission to withdraw it, saying he would take the matter to the Public Court, after he alleged bias and conflict of interest on the side of Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny Dollo and other Justices of the Supreme Court.

However, today, the Chief Justice granted Bobi Wine’s lawyers led by Counsel Medard Lubega Ssegona permission to withdraw the petition, although he deferred the decision on costs of the suit to another ruling at a  date to be communicated by court.

Justice Owiny Dollo asked the Attorney General William Byaruhanga (who wasn’t objecting to the withdrawal of the petition) what would happen if the court declined to grant the withdrawal.

Byaruhanga, in response, said the court would be in a state of quagmire whereby a petitioner has found that his petition is not good enough and the proceeding would be complicated.

“The only way out seems to be to accept the application withdrawal unless another candidate takes it up,” the Attorney General said, adding that; “There were threats from one former presidential candidate to take it up but it must have died a stillbirth.”

Museveni’s lawyer Counsel Edwin Karugire noted that their reason for withdrawing is that the evidence on record is not sufficient to support the petition

However, Chief Justice Owiny Dollo cautioned Counsel Ssegona to advise his client  (Bobi Wine) to desist from making negative comments about the Judiciary and the Supreme Court.

“When the court rules against him (Kyagulanyi) he goes to the Public Court, the court above Supreme Court, it means, that his court is above the Supreme Court,” the Chief Justice told Ssegona.

But Ssegona refuted the claims that the utterances his clients made were meant to be interpreted and construed to mean the context in which the Chief Justice had put them.

“Your Lordship, my client is a regular user of the courts of law. Whenever his rights have been transgressed upon he always runs to courts of law. That is a demonstration that he believes in the rule of law and not jungle law as he is being presented. There is evidence on record. He doesn’t run to anyone else but court.”

But the Chief Justice insisted by saying that; “You heard what the Attorney General was saying; that your client is only happy with courts when they rule in his favour. When they don’t rule in his favour, then the other words I cannot repeat. That’s what he resorts to.”

The Chief Justice went on to warn lawyer Ssegona to desist from tempting the Attorney General, whom had agreed to amicably allow him and his client to sit on a round table and settle the matter.

He told Ssegona that; “As a Catholics, we are told to say the Lord’s Prayer every day and I say it twice. But in that prayer, you ask God not to lead you into temptation. Now I’m telling, don’t tempt the Attorney General. If he has agreed to sit on the same table  to solve this matter amicably, don’t tempt him. I also want this matter settled once and for all.”

By Grapevine Reporter