Erick Sakwa the embattled Jinja RDC has this Wednesday May 13, 2020 dragged to Court the Attorney General William Byaruhanga and the Secretary to the Office of the President, Hajji Yunus Kakande to the High Court in Jinja.
Sakwa is praying for cancellation of his interdiction from office. The interdiction letter dated May 4, 2020 was written by Kakande whose powers Sakwa is now challenging.
According to the draft court papers seen by Eagle Online, Sakwa is filing a judicial review application in which he challenges the manner in which he was interdicted and the procedure Kakande purported to follow.
Judicial Review is the remedy under which a person dissatisfied with an administrative decision proceeds to challenge the same before the a Court of competent jurisdiction. This is provided for under Article 42 of the Constitution and the Judicature Act.
In Judicial Review applications, the aggrieved citizen challenges not the decision but the procedure and manner in which the same was arrived at.
In the affidavit, Sakwa says he is a political appointee and not a civil servant to whom the public service standing orders, which Kakande quotes in his interdiction letter apply.
He further asserts that he is specifically governed by terms of service disclosed in his instrument of appointment under the provisions of the Local Government Act.
That even the manner in which Kakande’s interdiction letter was delivered to him was anomalous and strange. He recalls that on Friday 8th May, a stranger served the interdiction letter unto him just outside his offices at Busoga square.
He says the manner in which he was interdicted contradicts the rules of natural justice because he was never heard prior to it.
According to his application, Sakwa contends that Kakande, as Secretary in the Office of the President, can only interdict him on the directive of the President who appointed and made him RDC Jinja.
The May 4 interdiction letter does not disclose anywhere that it was authored on orders of President Museveni or in consultation. Sakwa bases on this to term it as a nullity which he wants court to quash and have him fully reinstated.
