Justice Owiny Dolo today threatened to convict Tim Lwanga, Kyamuswa County MP and witnesses of his rival Moses Kabuusu to jail for contempt of court. They are Halima Nakazibwe, Simon Katongole, Tom Nduga, and Joseph Mudde.
It all started today during the hearing of a petition in which, Kabuusu is challenging the election of Lwanga on grounds of voter bribery, intimidation and electoral malpractices. Hearing started with the cross examination of Moses Kabuusu. However, an hour into the cross examination, Andrew Kasirye, the lawyer for Lwanga intercepted a sheet of paper sent to Halima Nakazibwe a witness in the case.
The paper contained a set of questions and the responses that Nakazibwe should give in court, when she takes the stand. It was allegedly written by somebody only identified as Bonny. The sheet read to court and handed over to Justice Dolo says if the lawyer asks her whether she has ever had an intimate relationship with Kabuusu to answer in the negative amongst other questions.
As soon the judge received the paper he summoned all the four witnesses who had been isolated from the court room during the cross examination of Kabuusu. He tasked them to explain and identify whether Bonny was in court or not.
But the four witnesses said they didn’t know who Bonny was despite the fact that Lwanga had briefed his lawyer that he found Joseph Mudde handing over the paper to Nakazibwe. The denial of the witnesses didn’t go down well with Justice Dolo who threatened to arrest them for lying to court. Justice Dolo also threatened to jail Lwanga after Mudde pinned him for threatening him with violence.
He also warned to jail Lwanga for unnecessary in movement court, which he said was raising suspicion. He adjourned the proceedings for one hour. Justice Dolo said he will not entertain any further movement in court since he has discovered that people come to court and then go and train witnesses to tell lies in court.
Andrew Kasirye, the lawyer for Lwanga hailed the judge the decision. But Joseph Kyazze, Kabuusu’s lawyer accused Lwanga’s camp of sending the paper to confuse witnesses. He says that right from the start of the hearing Lwanga and his wife kept moving in and outside court in a suspicious manner.
