Constitutional Court has fixed April 4, 2018 as the date for hearing of petitions filed by concerned citizens challenging age limit bill that was last year signed into law by President Museveni few days after its endorsement in the August house.
Last year, six opposition legislators, Uganda Law Society, Male Mabirizi among other concerned citizens petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging Age Limit Act on grounds that the process of enacting the bill was marred with violence, assault of legislators, storming of Special Forces Command (SFC) in parliamentary chambers and violations of human rights which among others contradicts with parliamentary rules and procedures.
In a conference that aimed at paving way for a joint hearing and how the case will be handled, Deputy Chief Justice Owiny Dollo told petitioners that the hearing of the case will start on April 4, 2017 in Mbale High Court.
According to Justice Dollo, judiciary has the jurisdiction to handle any matter in any court in Uganda.
“It is just a mere change of location but jurisdiction remains the same, petitioners should sacrifice and travel to Mbale for hearing of the case.” He said.
He added“Court observed that petitioner’s issues cuts across therefore petitioners should constitute themselves as a team and present their case for hearing to start.”
Upon Dollo advice, litigants complained about the convenience of the place saying that Mbale is too far adding that MPs who include the Opposition Chief Whip Semujju Nganda, Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Winnie Kiiza, have a lot of work to handle in Kampala.
However Justice Dollo assured petitioners that nobody is going to arm twist judiciary , vowing to determine case basing on merits, “Don’t worry you will get references on the case via social media. ”He added.
Age limit case moved from Kampala to Mbale
