September 19, 2023
KAMPALA – In a surprising turn of events at the High Court in Kampala, a judge ruled against Erias Lukwago’s bid to represent the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in a high-stakes internal party dispute. The ruling has left Lukwago and fellow FDC member Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda disappointed.
The confusion unfolded when FDC-affiliated lawyers, led by Erias Lukwago, entered the courtroom, claiming to represent the party and its chairperson, Wasswa Birigwa. However, Judge Esta Nambayo of the Civil Division of the High Court raised questions about who had been authorized to represent the party. Ultimately, she ruled in favor of lawyer Julius Galisonga, who had been authorized by Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi with a letter dated September 13, 2023.
Judge Nambayo’s decision meant that Lukwago and Moses Tugume had no official instructions to represent the FDC party as they had claimed. She insisted that they needed to present formal instructions before being recognized as counsels in court.
This legal drama unfolded as three aggrieved FDC members, Arafat Ntale Mwanja, Jamal Wante, and Marlick Ssazi, had sued FDC, its president Patrick Oboi Amuriat, and Nathan Nandala Mafabi. They sought to block an extraordinary delegates’ conference scheduled for September 19, 2023.
Judge Nambayo also noted that an interim order blocking the conference, remained in force pending the disposal of the main application. It is important to note that FDC’s leadership under Amuriat and Mafabi had distanced themselves from this conference, claiming it was not planned or budgeted for by the party.
The trio of Mwanja, Wante, and Ssazi argued that the conference violated democratic principles enshrined in the Constitution and contravened the Political Parties and Other Organizations Act, 2005, and the provisions of the FDC constitution. They requested that the conference be halted until the party fully complies with the law.
They further contended that the manner in which the conference had been hastily organized was in bad faith, aiming to embarrass the party and cause irreparable damage. As interested members of FDC, they believed that the resolutions from the conference would infringe upon their rights to assemble and associate, ultimately damaging the party.
The dispute within the FDC has intensified in recent times, with the party split into two factions. One faction, led by Patrick Amuriat and Nandala Mafabi, is pitted against another led by the founding party president Kizza Besigye, Kira Municipality legislator Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, and Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. Wasswa Birigwa is believed to have aligned with the Besigye-led faction, accusing the Mafabi-Amuriat faction of receiving questionable funding during the 2021 general election.
