Justice Owiny Dolo, the Masaka High Court judge has today dismissed with costs, the election petition challenging the election of Mathias Kasamba, the Member of Parliament for Kakuuto County, in Rakai district.
In April this year, Dr. Deo Kizito Lukyamuzi, Kasamba’s opponent in the February 18 elections petitioned high court seeking the nullification of the election alleging wide spread fraud.
In his affidavit, Dr. Lukyamuzi said the MP did not qualify for nomination because his secondary school certificates from St. Mary’s Kisubi, Busoga Collage Mwiri as well as the Makerere University transcript were forged.
The petitioner further said Kasamba presented documents bearing different names and alleged that the MP has used those forged documents before to attain higher positions.
Lukyamuzi further alleged that Kasamba was involved in widespread voter bribery in Kasensero, Mutukula, and Kakuuto where he gave herdsmen a lot of money to vote for him.
But today, Justice Dolo ruled that the petitioner failed to provide substantial evidence to support his allegations. The judge said that although several affidavits were sworn pinning Kasamba of voter bribery, the five witnesses aligned to attest to it failed to convince court to nullify Kasamba’s election basing on their testimonies.
Justice Dolo said the five witnesses simply relied on rumors to swear the affidavits but failed to pinpoint any person who was bribing voters and those who were bribed.
He also ruled that the allegations of forgery of academic qualifications brought against MP Kasamba were false. He explained that the testimonies from St. Mary’s Kisubi, Busoga Collage Mwiri and Makerere University proved that Kasamba’s use of initials as Mathias Kasamba J.L was not substantive enough to cause him nullify his election.
He explained that he found out that MP Kasamba acquired those names from his father Lawrence Lwekunda and it was not unlawful because when he scrutinized his documents at all levels of education, he actually found it was true that his father was called Joseph Lwekunda of Kakuuto.
Justice Dolo therefore dismissed it with half the costs to MP Kasamba. He explained that Dr. Lukyamuzi should only meet half the costs of the petition because there were some discrepancies such as adding names to his identities, which could have caused the nullification of Kasamba’s election had they not been explained by his school administration.
He also said the electoral commission should meet its costs.
As soon as Justice Dolo delivered his 24-page judgment, Kasamba’s supporters jubilated and sung songs in his support.
Speaking outside court shortly after the ruling, Kasamba said he was very excited about the judgment. He said he now wants 200 million shillings in compensation for the time his rival has wasted. He explained that he wants the money to pay his legal team. He however added that he is going to submit it to the registrar of court who will make the final figure.
Dr. Lukyamuzi did not comment about the ruling noting that he was still consulting his lawyers about the issue.
