Recently, the Court of Appeal threw Kamuli Municipality MP Rehema Tiwuwe Watongola out of Parliament, on grounds that she lacks the required academic qualifications equivalent of senior six when she was nominated to contest for the elections.
However, she is not going down without a fight. The embattled politician is set to file a petition in court after emerging with other academic papers to safeguard her seat from an election re-run.
The document verified by Electoral Commission shows she sat for UACE in 2016 and scored 0 in General paper, F9 in Entrepreneurship skills, 0 in Kiswahil, E in Art and subsidiary in computer giving her four points in total.
In the petition Salaam Musumba won she filed a document from Busoga university. Three Justices led by Richard Buteera concurred with Jinja High Court Judge Geoffrey Namundi that Watongola failed to explain her academic papers after being disowned by Busoga University, which she claims, awarded them.
Under section 4(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act (Act No.17 of 2005): “A person is qualified to be a member of Parliament if that person –
a) is a citizen of Uganda;
b) is a registered voter; and
c) has completed a minimum formal education of Advanced Level standard or its equivalent “.
Given this position of the law Hajati Watongola Rehema’s clearance to contest for the Kamuli Municipality parliamentary elections on the basis of her 2016 A-level results could serve as a hope of retaining her seat since meets the minimum requirements to stand.
We await the developments.