High Court Judge Emmanuel Baguma has permitted lawyers representing Sulaiman Kidanda to serve Kawempe North MP-elect Muhammad Ssegirinya from Kitalya Prison with documents challenging his win over fake academic documents.
Kidandala’s lawyers petitioned court revealing how they had failed to serve Ssegirinya since he was in prison. Baguma ruled that they can serve Ssegirinya through the Uganda Prisons Service.
Kidandala who was the runner up in an election dragged Ssegirinya to court claiming that his nomination papers were invalid because he did not have the requisite academic qualifications to contest for a parliamentary seat.
The law requires all persons contesting for a parliamentary seat to have an A-level certificate or its equivalent. But according to Kidandala’s petition, the O level and A level academic documents that Ssegirinya presented to the Electoral Commission were forged, which constitutes a crime under the Parliamentary Election Act.
He wants court to declare that Ssegirinya was not validly elected and also find him guilty of committing electoral offences.
Ssegirinya defeated nine other candidates when he scored 41,197 votes against his closest challenger Kidandala who had 7,512 votes.