The two weeks preceding the Kawempe North by-election towards 13th March 2025 exposed Ugandans a glimpse of what might happen in the 2026 general elections if nothing is done.
Despite the police presence during the campaigns and on the voting day, the Army and another tough unit called JATT dominated the Kawempe north by-election. These beat candidates, beat voters and even beat journalists to pulp. Army mambas were even seen inside polling stations and this could have been the reason why out of the registered 190,000 voters, just less than 50,000 came out to vote.
On the voting day, several media houses withdrew their teams from the field in Kawempe after security operatives started targeting journalists. Reports also indicating suspected security operatives stormed several polling stations and destroyed polling materials when vote counting was still on-going.
Nalukoola polled 17000 votes while Nambi in the final figures which were gazetted polled around 9000 votes. She initially petitioned court for a vote recount but the petition was thrown out and then she ran to court pointing a sharp accusing finger at Nalukoola and Electoral Commission.
In her petition, Nambi claimed her votes from 14 polling stations were not counted. She also accused Nalukoola of campaigning on Election Day. These are the same grounds that formed the basis of nullification.
In the judgement on page 49, Court detailed these grounds as follows verbatim;
This court has reached the decision to set aside the election of Luyimbazi Elias Nalukoola as a Member of Parliament for Kawempe Division North constituency for two main reasons:
i). 16,640 voters in the constituency including Nambi Faridah Kigongo were denied the right to vote (disenfranchised) which affected the result of the election in a substantial manner.
ii). Luyimbazi Elias Nalukoola personally campaigned on election day at Mbogo Primary School Playground (KAT– MAJ) and Kazo Angola (KAL – KZ) at LCI Office polling stations which is an offence under Section 100 (1) (a) and (b) and Section 100 (2) (a) and (3) of the Parliamentary Elections Act (Cap. 177).
Court set aside the election of Nalukoola and also declared the position vacant. The Judge Benard Namanya instead didn’t declare Nambi as the winner but ordered the Electoral Commission to hold fresh elections in Kawempe North.
Electoral Commission has since revealed it won’t appeal the court’s decision but Nalukoola has already indicated that he’s running to the court of appeal and this will keep him in parliament until the final decision is made by the appellant court.
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