Hi Emmanuel,
As Apollo and others have expressed, it would be nice to double check the
accuracy of the information on the official opening time for public offices and
banks in Uganda, if possible. Some of us have not been in Uganda for a while,
and may not be in touch with some policy changes. Where an error has been made
it does no harm to correct them so that people can receive reliable information.
Thanks.
Sam
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 27/11/13, Onzoma Apollo <apon...@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] (no subject)
To: "samuel andema" <andema...@yahoo.co.uk>, "A Virtual Network for friends of
West Nile" <westnilenet@kym.net>
Date: Wednesday, 27 November, 2013, 10:44
Thanks for this update. It
clarifies a lot of issues. What isn't very clear to me
is the time Government business starts and banks open (which
appear to be 8.30am these days). The details have been very
enriching for me bwana Alioni.
On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at
6:55 PM, samuel andema <andema...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
Hi Emmnanuel,Thank you very
much for your insightful piece. It is free legal education
for which I can only thank you again! Your parents did good
to send you to school. Keep it up, my brother.
Sam
On Tuesday, 26 November 2013, 7:27, Alioni
Emmanuel Drajole <drajole...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
ANALYSIS OF THE LORD
MAYOR'S IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS FROM A STRICTLY LEGAL
POINT OF VIEW.
Today I thought it prudent to look at yesterday's issue
from a PURELY LEGAL
point of view with a focus on both sides, and the possible
way forward.
Hopefully lessons can be learnt from the process, both by
lawyers and
non-lawyers.
LORD MAYOR ARGUMENTS:
We start with the Lord Mayor's arguments;
1. INJUNCTION: An injunction is merely a court order
stopping a certain act
from taking place. In this case, an Interim injunction was
obtained from the
Registrar of the High Court. Now, there are 3 types of
injunctions,
a) Permanent Injunction, which is issues after the trial,
b) Temporary Injunction, which is issued to last as long as
the trial,
c) Interim Injunction, which is issued chap chap, in this
case it was issued at
8:30am as a matter of urgency to prevent the Council meeting
from going on at
9am pending the court process due to start at 10am to
entertain another
injunction hearing. This was a very bright move by the Lord
mayor's lawyers and
kudos to them for their quick thinking.
2. SERVICE OF THE COURT ORDER: Now to the controversial
part, the service. Now,
when an Injunction is got, it is supposed to be served to
the other party.
Service simply means delivering the order following the
RIGHT PROCEDURE as
prescribed by court.
In this case, the order was taken to City Hall, by the Lord
Mayor's Lawyers,
who were barred from accessing the meeting venue while the
meeting was taking
place. A Councillor, who was in the meeting, then delivered
this document to
the chairman of the meeting but the Minister refused to
accept.
No matter how absurd it might seem, the Councillor was not
the right person to
Serve/ Deliver that order on the Minister, it should have
been served by either
the Lord Mayor, or his Lawyers. So legally, as far as the
Law is concerned, the
order was NOT duly served onto the Minister, who in
"ignorance" then
proceeded to conduct the meeting.
The blame should go to the Police and other persons at the
gates of City Hall
for refusing to allow the Lord Mayor's Lawyers (in this
case acting as officers
of the court) from delivering that court order, hence
obstructing justice and
frustrating delivery of the order, but not to the Minister
because legally, the
Minister has a solid argument based on his
"ignorance" of the
existence of the injunction.
3. REMEDY: In the end, the meeting was carried out, and the
Lord Mayor
impeached. He still has a solid remedy, which is to appeal
against that
decision within 21 days.
Now, if he appeals, then he still remains Lord Mayor for the
duration of the
appeal, if he fails to appeal or apply for Judicial Review,
then elections will
have to be carried out.
PETITIONER ARGUMENTS:
From what transpired yesterday, tough questions were raised
by this side too
which questions we cannot resolve, but we will endevour to
shed some light
accordingly because the Media will focus on these arguments
for the rest of the
year.
1. TIME FOR COURT BUSINESS: Court business officially starts
at 9am
countrywide, so questions are being raised as to how the
Lord Mayor's lawyers
managed to obtain a Court document before 9am. Now, if this
is true the order
was obtained before 9am, then any business conducted before
9am is void.
However, courts also do have powers to conduct business
longer than usual e.g
late into the night.
2. COURT FEES: A court case, hearing etc is null and void if
court fees are not
paid, and court fees are paid into the bank. Now, banks in
this country open
business at 9am. So, how were court fees paid before 9am? If
no court fees were
paid, then those proceedings too are a nullity based on this
argument alone.
However, in certain instances, court can order that the fees
be paid later, and
uphold the legality of the proceedings before the fees were
paid.
3. CASES AGAINST GOVERNMENT: Now, the Government Proceedings
Act does not allow
cases against the government to go on Ex- Parte, (Ex- parte
means with only
Lawyers of one side represented). In this case, Lawyers for
the Lord Mayor went
for the Injunction in the absence of Lawyers representing
the Petitioners which
made it an ex-parte proceeding.
Since the other side in the case was the Government i.e
Attorney General, then
if that order was granted Ex-parte, it might be declared
unlawful if challenged
based on this ground because matters against the Government
cannot go on
Ex-parte.
4. TIME OF SERVICE: Officially, government business in
Uganda begins at 9am,
which means any official documents to be served onto anyone
in Government
should be done after 9am. It is claimed by the Lawyers for
the Lord mayor that
the Injunction was served on a Government office at 8:38am
which would make the
service irregular.
WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD: As we try to swim through this
legal gymnastics from
what transpired yesterday, it appears, from the facts at
hand, that the most
appropriate Legal remedy available for the Lord Mayor is to
apply for JUDICIAL
REVIEW against the Council decisions and his main argument
will be that he was
not given a RIGHT TO A FAIR-HEARING since neither him nor
his Lawyers were
present in the meeting. If indeed it is proven he was not
given a chance to
defend himself, then the outcomes of the meeting could be
set aside or quashed
by the Court.
Otherwise as it stands now, from a Legal point of view, the
meeting appears to
have been lawful and it's outcomes binding unless
successfully challenged in
courts of law.
If you have any questions related to this opinion, send a
private message
through the inbox, email to drajole...@yahoo.com
NOTE: THIS IS PURELY
A LEGAL OPINION NOT BASSED ON ANY POLITICAL
SENTIMENTS.
ALIONI EMMANUEL
DRAJOLE
Top of Form
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