Uganda: Police officers manhandle City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s lawyer Abdallah Kiwanuka after he came to serve a court order to Kampala Minister Frank Tumwebaze

What happened at City Hall was the culmination of a drawn-out combination of political and judicial/legal manoeuvring of a kind Kampala has not experienced in a long time.

At around 8:45am, High Court Registrar Fred Waninda issued to Lukwago’s lawyers an interim order “restraining the minister in charge of Kampala Capital City Authority, his agents and or servants and all persons under his authority, the councillors of Kampala Capital City Authority from convening and proceeding with a meeting at Kampala Capital City Authority to deliberate on the report of the tribunal and vote for the removal of the applicant from the office of Lord Mayor of Kampala pursuant to a petition of councillors until the final determination of miscellaneous application 445 of 2013.”

At 9am, at City Hall, the seat of the city authority, the Minister for Kampala and the Presidency, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, went ahead with the special sitting with a seven-item agenda, including a prayer, the national and Buganda anthems, a briefing from the minister on the tribunal report, reaction from Mr Lukwago or his representative, a vote (if necessary) and closing remarks.

Mr Lukwago was neither at court nor at City Hall as he recuperated in hospital from the effects of last week’s four days in detention and battles with police before and after his arrest.

But by the time lawyers led by Mr Medard Segona run the few hundred yards from the High Court to City Hall to deliver the interim injunction, Mr Tumwebaze had ignored a councillor who insisted on the court injunction, and proceeded with the vote on Mr Lukwago’s fate, with 29 councillors voting for his impeachment against three who voted to save him and a single abstention.

The protesting councillor was beaten and dragged out of the chambers police and plain clothed individuals.
The main gate to City Hall had been shut and padlocked with a wall of police in riot gear who prevented the lawyer’s access.

Slice of the law for Lukwago
The KCCA Act gives Mr Lukwago 21 days to appeal his impeachment should he choose to. Should he lodge the appeal within the prescribed period, he will remain Lord Mayor until the appeal is disposed of. Should he, on the other hand, fail or decide not to appeal within the three weeks, then the Electoral Commission will have to organise a bye-election to fill the position.

The Daily Monitor understands that Mr Lukwago has been working a two-pronged approach in anticipation of the likely outcomes. A legal team has been working out a strategy on the legal front, while the political team that got him elected under the pro-Buganda Kingdom pressure group, Suubi, has also been active preparing for the likely political battle.

Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga, a former leader of the A4C/4GC activist groups and senior member of Suubi, said yesterday plans had been made in all directions.
“What we have been doing is basically what any serious political group, if mired in this kind of situation, would do,” he said. “We have been meeting and strategising and keeping in close contact with allies and of course keeping a close eye to know what the enemy is up to, we know everything they have been doing and are planning.”

Lukwago’s mission
According to sources close to the Lord Mayor’s group over the last week, the Lukwago team has been reaching out to key constituencies, including the Buganda Kingdom at Mengo, influential Muslim leaders, particularly the Kibuli faction, and Prince Kassim Nakibinge.

But his main hope remains in a legal victory in the High Court where he applied for a judicial review and a possible quashing of the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire tribunal report.

“The legal team has already embarked on making sure that the main application has been attended to,” an influential figure on his team said.

On the government side, teams of lawyers have similarly been on hand to guide Mr Tumwebaze on the matters of the law. One of these, Mr Frank Kanduho, elected last week as a councillor representing the Uganda Law Society, said yesterday, “the alleged injunction [stopping the vote] was stupid.” Mr Kanduho the injunction would not stand legal scrutiny if it emerged that it had been issued before 9am.

“If that injunction was secured it would be useless and actually stupid, court business in Uganda starts at 9am and indeed all official business starts at 9am not just in Uganda. Where did they get it before that time?” He queried.

He added that for the injunction to stand, they would have had to pay stamp duty in a bank and wonders how they were able to pay in time before the vote.

His views were shared by Mr Tumwebaze who dismissed the injunction as a “forgery”.
KCCA at present does not have a substantive deputy Lord Mayor who would have automatically taken over as acting Mayor until the election is held. The authority finds itself in this quandary because Mr Suleiman Kidandala’s appointment as deputy by Lukwago was contested by the Executive Director, among others.