As we had earlier reported, the Parliament Appointment’s Committee rejected, among others, the dean of Uganda Christian University (UCU) Faculty of Law, Dr. Roselyn Karugonjo – Seggawa, as the Chairperson of the Leadership Code Tribunal (Tribunal). Four others persons that were vetted by the said committee were also rejected.
The above 5, together with those that were accepted were to be vetted by the Parliament Appointment’s Committee on Monday, the 6th April 2020, following the appointment by the President last week.
According to the official Parliament Twitter account, @Parliament_Ug, the above all appeared before the Committee. According to the information we have gathered, the UCU Law dean did not meet the minimum requirements for the appointment.
Section 19C of the Leadership Code Act as amended requires that for a person to be a chairperson of the Tribunal, he or she must be qualified to be appointed a judge of the High Court.
Under Article 143 (1) (e), of the Ugandan Constitution, a person is qualified to be appointed a judge if he or she has “practiced as an advocate for a period not less than ten years before a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters”, which would be the High Court, the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court.
The Parliamentary Committee examined Dr Seggawa and found out that she had not done that and was therefore short for qualification to the job. According to inside sources, Parliament rejected her appointment to avoid suits against the process since all those that fell short were not properly positioned for the job.
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