The speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Among has summoned the Rubaga North lawmaker Abubaker Kawalya to help the house understand why he is Ebola-skeptic, contrary to the stand of the Ministry of Health.

Hon. Kawalya, a lawmaker who subscribes to the opposition National Unity Platform party is alleged to have made the remarks on television according to a report tabled before plenary by the junior Minister for health Hon. Margaret Muhanga.

The speaker has now summoned Kawalya to show up and justify his allegations that Ebola is a ‘myth.’ She has directed that Parliamentary committee on rules, privileges and discipline to institute a probe into why the elected leader whose constituency is presently said to be the epicenter of the Ebola virus disease is in disbelief with what the Health Ministry asserts on the same.

Nyanzi has lost a bid to block payment of Shs38m to Nsereko after Court dismissed his case with costs.

On April 21, 2021 Mengo Chief Magistrates Court had ordered Nyanzi to pay Muhammad Nsereko legal costs amounting to Shs38m after losing an election petition against him.

According to Judge Musa Ssekana, Mr. Nyanzi filed his appeal out of time and without seeking leave of court to do so.

“The omnibus application seems to be seeking to extend the time and also hear the application by re-taxing the bill of costs downwards. This is irregular and wrong to file an application/appeal out of time and later seek to validate the same,” the judge ruled.

“A party should only come to court after the time has been extended by the court and not the other way round. The law does not allow you to file an appeal out of time and later you seek to have the appeal validated,” he added.

Reports indicate that Nyanzi had instructed his lawyers M/s Jingo, Ssempijja & Co Advocates together with M/s Baingana & Co Advocates to file an appeal but the said lawyers neglected to do so within the required time.

“The applicant’s counsel ought to have filed an application for extension of time promptly since she was aware that time had lapsed, but instead she opted to write a letter seeking a certified ruling which was not necessary at the moment. It is not a requirement to file a certified ruling before the application for extension of time is filed,” Justice Ssekaana ruled.

“The applicant has failed to show how the two advocates of separate law firms who were purportedly instructed became negligent and the manner of instructions to the said law firms,” he added.

The court reasoned that it is not enough to merely allege that you instructed the lawyers and they failed in their professional obligation through negligence.

“An Advocate who is duly instructed and becomes negligent in execution of his duties should be reported to the Disciplinary Committee of the Law Council instead of coming to lament about the negligence of counsel in court for sympathy,” Justice Ssekaana ruled.

The court further ruled that Mr Nyanzi did not present any sufficient cause for failure to lodge an appeal in time nor did he avail court material facts that failed him and yet he cites the lockdown.

Mr Nyanzi had sought for a vote recount on grounds that the alleged electoral malpractices were orchestrated by Mr Nsereko and EC and that the same had cost him the seat.

However, on January 28, presiding Chief Magistrate, Esther Nansambu dismissed with costs Mr Nyanzi’s application for a vote recount citing that his evidence to cause a vote recount was based on hearsay, which was not admissible in court.

Ms Jenifer Bamuturaki, Chief Executive Officer, has revealed Uganda Airlines is set to make a maiden flight to Nigeria this December.

According to Bamuturaki, flights to Lagos will begin before the end of December while flights to Abuja will begin in 2023.

“I am happy to tell you that we, the Uganda Airlines will begin our flights to Nigeria, first time in history, from December 2022. This will be our first flight to West Africa, we will begin that as we continue to grow slowly. When we come to Nigeria, we will be working through the recognized travel agents and tour operators,” she said.

She advised African airlines to invest in different forms of partnership to improve seamless travels across the continent.

Former Uganda Airlines boss Cornwell Muleya has been acquitted by Court.

Mr Muleya had been accused of disobeying IGG’sorders to appear before their office and make a statement over corruption-related charges that they were investigating against him.

However, on Monday presiding Buganda Road Court Grade One Magistrate Asuman Muhumuza acquitted Mr Muleya on grounds that non-appearance at the IGG’s office was excusable.

Mr Muhumuza ruled that the explanation offered by Mr Muleya was just.

The court noted that Mr. Muleya had presented his passport and airline tickets as evidence that he had left for South Africa on June 7 and returned on June 11, and that the next day, he had left for Dubai and returned on June 14.

“I am surprised that the IGG did not find the same explanation compelling upon the arrest of the accused. I find that the accused failure to appear for the summons is not defiance as the prosecutor had put it but it was a just reasonable excuse. For those reasons, the accused person is not found guilty and is acquitted,” Mr Muhumuza ruled.

Court went on and faulted Mr Muleya for not communicating his illness to his lawyers and the person he was in contact with at the IGG’s office when he returned from South Africa.

However, Mr Muhumuza said his failure to communicate does not constitute a criminal offence nor warrants criminal prosecution.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Among as the custodian of the Parliamentary Commission has this morning inducted 49 new members into the Parliamentary staff.

Surprisingly there was no advertisement for these jobs anywhere in the newspapers as required by the law.

Amongst the new recruits includes the daughter of Among’s key ally Chief Justice Alfonse Owinyi Dollo (the one she is always saying she is happy to give work), one of the sons of the Late Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, the wife of former Minister of state for Tourism Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi, two other relatives of Parliamentary Commissioner and Zombo woman MP Esther Afoyo-Chan (who already had 5 siblings employed in Parliament), among others.

Contacter for a comment on the illegal recruitment, the parliament public relations officer Chris Obore declined to pick up his known phone numbers.

Job Muhumuza, a disgruntled Ugandan took to Twitter to express his dismay with the unfair recruitmen process.

“If you want to see different family employed in those govt jobs change the top and the bottom will sort itself out. The sons of the poor will always be sidelined, get used to it. Jobs in this county are connections and lobbying nothing else. No books or qualifications,” he said.

It should be recalled that even the Uganda Airlines CEO Ms. Jennifer Bamuturaki was recruited for the job slot despite not filing her application letter and failing to meet the minimum academic requirements for the same position.

Tears in NUP as 51 of their mobilization force in Bukomansimbi joins the National Resistance Movement (NRM).

The National Unity Platform high command in Kamwokya has been shocked on hearing the news that their Bukomansimbi mobilization team led by Herman Lubega has crossed to the ruling National Resistance Movement – NRM.

Herman Lubega has been the NUP spokesperson for Bukomansimbi District.

The team has pegged their decision of failure by the NUP leaders to fulfill their pledges of transforming the youths of Bukomansimbi into better citizens adding that their leaders promised heavens but have done totally nothing for the electorate.

“We elected our MPs thinking that they will care about us, which is not the case. Every time they make expensive trips abroad to the US and other countries. But they have failed to help us at all,” says Mr. Herman Lubega.

The team was welcomed by State Minister for Defence Hon Vicent Ssempijja at Kisojjo playground in Bukomansimbi on Thursday 27th October 2022.

Ssempijja promised the youths that the NRM is going to make sure that their demands are met urging them to take advantage of the ongoing government poverty eradication programs like the Parish Development Model to Change their lives.

We tried to reach the NUP Secretary General for a comment but he wasn’t picking our calls. The Deputy Spokesperson Waiswa Mufumbiro who managed to pick said he would not comment on something he had no information about.

The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has urged Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo and his fellow Supreme Court Judge Esther Kisaakye to settle their issues outside court to avoid the effects of full litigation and also preserve the sanctity of the institution.

According to Mr Bernard Oundo, the ULS president, he warns that should the petition filed by Justice Kisaakye against the Chief Justice and other Judiciary top officials go on for a full hearing, it will erode public confidence in the institution.

“When you have such conflicts coming out in the open, they erode public confidence in the Judiciary and if we lose confidence in the Judiciary; where shall we go to?” Mr Oundo said during the release of the 3rd quarterly rule of law report in Kampala on Friday.

Mr Ounda also revealed that Law professor Fredrick Ssempebwa is leading a team of mediators to resolve the matter.

“Our advice and what I have tasked the chairman of the mediation committee, Prof Ssempebwa; is to continue with mediation that had been started some time back and see that this matter is hopefully mediated outside the court system. So as ULS, we are going to allow that process to continue,” Mr Oundo said.

Justice Kisaakye sued the Chief Justice and some top officers before the Constitutional Court accusing them of victimising her by withholding her salary, and denying her work, among others.

Sources indicate that the Chief Justice had fully submitted himself to the mediation process.

“It’s now entirely on her (Justice Kisaakye) to have the mediation talks resume because the Chief Justice had fully been cooperating and before the matter went to court, he had met the Ssempebwa committee several times,” a source said.

Others sued along with Chief Justice are Mr Pius Bigirimana, the Judiciary Permanent Secretary, Ms Sarah Langa Siu, the chief registrar of the Judiciary, and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and Ms Apophia Tumwine, the Commissioner, Human Resources of the Judiciary.