The Judiciary has warned the management of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to desist from ignoring court orders, saying this undermines the public confidence in the rule of law.
The warning was in respect to the press release issued out by KCCA that appeared in various local newspapers on Monday in connection to the ongoing dispute over the 'legality' and 'management' of Kampala District Land Board (KDLB).
According to the press release, KCCA was disagreeing with last week’s court ruling that blocked it from disbanding Kampala District Land Board until the main case is heard and disposed of.
On Friday last week, Constitutional Court Judge Steven Kavuma issued a temporary injunction blocking KCCA and its agents from disbanding the land board until the main case is heard and disposed of.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Erias Kisawuzi, the Judiciary public relations officer, described the KCCA press release as contemptuous and disrespectful.
The press release, according to Kisawuzi, is an affront to the administration of justice and in contempt of the Constitutional Court order issued on the July 13 and calculated to undermine the public confidence in the constitutional court and rule of law.
The Judiciary statement comes a day after the ongoing dispute took an ugly twist with the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and a group of councilors forcefully opening the Board’s offices that had earlier been locked by the City Executive Director Jennifer Musisi.
Armed with hummers and iron bars, the group destroyed the locks and opened the offices before handing the premises to board chairman Yusuf Nsibambi in defiance of Musisi’s earlier decision not to re-open the offices.
Musisi, acting on the advice of the Solicitor General, was set to disband the board.
This was after the Solicitor General had in his opinion argued that after the formation of the KCCA, Kampala is not a district under local government but a city under the authority under central government.
He said that it cannot have a district land board and all public land falling under the jurisdiction of KCCA should be managed by the Uganda Land Commission.
The judiciary in its statement also lashed at KCCA by citing Article 126 of the constitution that provides that adjudication of disputes is a function of courts of law and that once a dispute has been submitted to a court and orders made, no person or authority should interfere with them.
