Three Justices To Hear Mbabazi, NRM Appeal

The case in which a student of Kent University challenged the approval of NRM’s top secretariat appointees has been appealed before a panel of three justices of the Court of Appeal aimed at overturning the decision of Acting Chief Justice Steven Kavuma as a single judge.

The appeal by Mr Benjamin Alipanga was filed on his behalf by a host of law firms led by Mugisha and Co Advocates on January 15 before the Court of Appeal.

His reference before a full panel of three justices follows the January 8 decision of Justice Kavuma when he threw out Mr Alipanga’s application in which he had sought court’s temporary orders to block the approval of NRM’s appointees until his main petition was heard and disposed of.

The new appointees included; Ms Justine Lumumba as new secretary general replacing former embattled Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, Mr Richard Todwong as deputy Secretary General, Ms Rose Namayanja as party National treasurer and Dr Kenneth Omona as her deputy.

The new appointees were eventually approved by NRM’s top organ; Central Executive Committee (CEC) even before court could rule on the matter.

Justice Kavuma in his ruling that came a few hours after the approval of the new appointees; observed that Mr Alipanga had failed to persuade him that the ‘balance of convenience’ was on his side necessitating him to be granted an interim injunction stopping the approval of the appointees.

However, Justice Kavuma held that Mr Alipanga raised some triable issues which he asked the registrar of the court and both parties to fix his substantive case to be heard as soon as possible.

However; being dissatisfied with Justice Kavuma’s decision; Mr Alipanga immediately through his lead lawyer John Mary Mugisha; asked court to avail him with a typed and certified copy of the proceedings and ruling to enable him put together the grounds for his appeal before a panel of three justices.

By press time, the court had not named the panel of three justices to hear Mr Alipanga’s appeal

Mr Alipanga had raised three main issues in his interim application that included; stopping the four new NRM appointees from performing their duties, stopping the popularization of the Kyankwanzi resolution of sole candidacy of President Museveni and stopping the implementation of the Seninde report until his main petition was disposed of.