Electoral Commission’s legal officer Eric Sabiiti has been identified the conspirator working tooth and nail to help Dononzio Mugabe Kahonda evade the law and return to Parliament after violating Parliamentary Elections Act.
The Ruhinda South Member of Parliament together with lawyer Sabiiti have colluded to block petitions at EC which challenge Kahonda’s candidature since he was convicted with in the time frame of 7 years which automatically eliminates him from contesting as Member of Parliament.
A voter in Ruhinda South constituency Godfrey Kahonaho petitioned EC challenging the nomination of Kahonda who in in October 2015, was arraigned before the court on 14 charges related to impersonation and forgery of several academic documents in the name of Dickson Mutabazi, which he reportedly used to join the Jinja Military Academy on November 11 2001.
He was convicted on eleven counts and acquitted on three counts. He was subsequently sentenced to nine months in jail on all counts and the sentence was to run concurrently.
Kahonda, however, appealed against the conviction and subsequent sentence in the High Court and was later released on bail pending appeal.
To date, his appeal has not yet been heard.
But Under Article 80 of the Constitution and Section four of the Parliamentary Elections Act, “a person is not qualified for elections as a Member of Parliament if that person has within the seven years towards the election been convicted by a competent court or a crime involving dishonesty or moral turpitude”.
Against that background Kahonaho argues that Kahonda who was convicted three years ago should be disqualified because he was not fit to be nominated as MP.
Whereas Electoral Commission received Kahonaho’s petition on October 13, the commission hadn’t not taken action against Kahonda, maintaining that when someone hasn’t been nominated he/she isn’t a property of the commission, and therefore had to first nominate Kahonda so as hear Kahonaho’s application.
But this website understands that EC hadn’t heard Kahonaho’s petition even after nominating Kahonda as the file was ‘sat’ on by Mr Sabiti, a close associate of Kahonda.
Kahonaho was prompted to write another application to EC over the same.
“The above subject matter refers whereby this is a reminder to my application dated 8th October 2020 and received at the Electoral Commission Security registry on 13th October 2020 but whose contents were neither acted upon nor a written notification sent to me giving the position of the Electoral Commission on the issues I raised,” reads Kahonaho’s second petition dated October 16 which was also received by EC 20th same month.
Lawyer Sabiiti in the Storm
Kahonaho’s second application has since exposed EC’s legal officer as a conspirator working to protect Kahonda’s candidature.
This website has learnt that Sabiti who is not known to Kahonaho has lately harassed him with a bevy of calls seeking audience on matters related to Kahonda.
In fact, Eric had suggested monetary terms for Kahonaho to withdraw the two applications which the latter rejected.
According to a call print out from MTN seen by this website, Mr Sabiiti would making outgoing calls to Kahonaho and would also contact Kahonda in a range of 1 minute after communicating with the “subject.”
Exposed
Mr Sabiiti ran out of luck on Friday when EC invited all petitioners to the head offices to listen to their grievances.
The EC chairman heard that Sabiti is a conflicted party after the petitioner’s lawyer provided the MTN phone call printout as evidence prompting Byabakama to chase away Sabiti from attending the hearing.
Earlier, Sabiti had told off petitioner’s counsel that EC forgot to invite the respondent (Kahonda) and therefore asked the lawyer to reappear on Tuesday.
But on Tuesday, November 3, the commission will be at Kyambogo grounds managing Presidential nominations.
“Clearly this was a ploy by Sabiiti to frustrate our case and favour his person Kahonda. But we insisted on making a submission and we exposed him,” a lawyer says.
This is not the first time Eric Sabiiti is involved in what can be perceived as a mess which puts the image of the commission into disrepute. In 2017, EC management reprimanded him after he lodged a petition in Constitutional Court seeking to bar Parliament from probing government officials who received hefty sums of money as a bonus after litigation process against Heritage in London.
He was warned that his actions were rushed, reckless and wantonly disregarded the expected decorum of a public servant.
This time Mr Sabiiti at it again colluding with Hon Kahonda whose chances of returning to Parliament are thin, and has decided to use an electoral manager to evade the law.
