Sembabule Woman Member of Parliament Hanifa Kawooya has found herself in trouble again after the Supreme Court ruled that the National Council of Higher Education has the powers to verify her academic documents.
The six Supreme Court judges including the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, overruled an earlier ruling by the Constitutional Court that had cleared Ms Kawooya of any academic malpractices, after she presented documents issued to her in 2001, which documents were challenged by the NCHE.
But in the ruling, the coram noted that the NCHE is mandated by law to verify all higher education academic documents and that to block the body would deprive it of the oversight mandate.
Others judges on the panel included former Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki and Justices John Wilson Tsekoko, Esther Mayambala and Galdino Okello and Christine Kitumba, who delivered the lead judgment.
MP Kawooya sued the NCHE and the Attorney General in 2010, arguing that the oversight body had not given her a hearing, thereby violating the principles of natural justice and in the process, contravening the Constitution. Court agreed with her on this argument.
Ms Kawooya went to court following a directive from Senior Presidential Advisor Maj Roland Kakooza Mutale to NCHE indicating he had new evidence that the MP’s academic papers were suspect and that they be subject to further scrutiny.
But while reading the ruling, Ms Kawooya was also advised by the judges to appear before the NCHE to clear any queries and also to seek judicial review in the High Court if she felt dissatisfied.
Costs of the suit are to be borne by each party, the judges ruled.
Meanwhile, it emerged during the hearing that Knight Bridge University does not exist in the UK, yet the embattled MP used documents allegedly issued by the said university to later pursue Bachelors and Masters degrees.
