The election of Member of Parliament for Buyamba County in Rakai District, Amos Mandela, has been nullified along with all of his academic papers by High Court in Masaka on the grounds that he impersonated Nandala Amos in order to obtain academic qualifications.
Along with Amos Mandela, Court also nullified woman MP for the same Buyamba County Ms Juliet Ssuubi Kinyamatama over lack of requisite academic qualifications. Aside from lack of academic qualifications, Justice Lawrence Gidudu also ruled that both were culpable of election offences that substantially led to their undue victory earlier this year. Both are members of the ruling NRM party.
This comes after the election of Mr. Mandela and Ms Kinyamatama were challeneged by their former competitors Mr. Ivan Bwowe and independent candidate Ms Robina Ssentongo respectively.
The election of Ms Kinyamatama and Mr Mandela were challenged by their former competitors, who claimed they lacked requisite academic papers and that there were gross electoral malpractices respectively.
In his petition, Bwowe accused Mandela of presenting certificates in the name of Nadala Amos for his nomination as Mandela Amos along with gross election malpractice including ballot staffing and voter intimidation.
Although the respondent told court that the mistake on his name was just a typing error made by UNEB on his O-Level certificate, the judge ruled that 28 years after he sat for the exam should have given Mr Mandela enough time to rectify the mistake. Court also rendered void his subsequent academic awards including his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from Makerere University.
The MPs who are getting thrown out of Parliament especially on grounds of lack of proper academic qualifications, gives a lot of weight to the statement “dropping like flies”.