The National Unity Platform (NUP) has revealed that it will back the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate Attan Moses in the upcoming by-election for Soroti East Constituency in Soroti City.

The Party said it has taken a decision not to field a candidate in the constituency’s upcoming by-election.

“Although we had very good potential candidates in Soroti, we are doing this in the broader interest of the unity of the Forces of Change. We believe that Attan legitimately won the previous election which was interrupted by a court decision. Therefore, we shall be supporting him, and rallying the people of Soroti to take him back to Parliament,” NUP said in a statement.

The Soroti East Constituency Parliamentary seat fell vacant following a court nullification of the election of Attan Moses.

On May 24th, 2022, the Court of Appeal nullified the election of Attan Moses on grounds that the Electoral Commission failed to conduct free and fair elections. Following his election, a voter petitioned court  challenging the annexation and transfer of Opiyai and Aloet parishes from Soroti East to Soroti West after the nomination of the candidates.

The voter contended that the annexation led to disenfranchising of over 4,560 voters the right to vote for the leader of their choice.

Court ruled that at the time of voter verification, the people of Opiyai and Aloet wards were verified and confirmed to fall under Soroti East thus the sudden change left voters at a loss and confused as to where they belong and whom to vote for as they were presented with ballot papers of strange candidates than the ones they expected to see and were known to them.

Polling for Member of Parliament shall take place on Thursday 28th July 2022 at all polling stations in Soroti East Constituency.

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Boris Johnson will announce his resignation as British prime minister on Thursday after he was abandoned by ministers and his Conservative Party’s lawmakers who said he was no longer fit to govern.

With eight ministers, including two secretaries of state, resigning in the last two hours, an isolated and powerless Johnson was set to bow to the inevitable and declare he was stepping down later on Thursday, a source said.

His Downing Street office confirmed that Johnson would make a statement to the country later.

After days of battling for his job, Johnson had been deserted by all but a handful of allies after the latest in a series of scandals broke their willingness to support him.

“His resignation was inevitable,” Justin Tomlinson, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, said on Twitter. “As a party we must quickly unite and focus on what matters. These are serious times on many fronts.”

The Conservatives will now have to elect a new leader, a process which could take about two months. It was not clear whether Johnson would or could stay on in a caretaker role while the person who would be the new prime minister was chosen.

“As well as resigning as party leader the PM must resign his office,” Conservative lawmaker Nick Gibb said. “After losing so many ministers, he has lost the trust and authority required to continue.”

Support for Johnson had evaporated during one of the most turbulent 24 hours in recent British political history, epitomised by finance minister, Nadhim Zahawi, who was only appointed to his post on Tuesday, calling on his boss to resign.

Zahawi and other cabinet ministers had gone to Downing Street on Wednesday evening, along with a senior representative of those lawmakers not in government, to tell Johnson the game was up.

Initially, Johnson refused to go and seemed set to dig in, sacking Michael Gove – a member of his top ministerial team who was one of the first to tell him he needed to resign – in a bid to reassert his authority.

One ally had told the Sun newspaper that party rebels would “have to dip their hands in blood” to get rid of Johnson.

But by Thursday morning as a slew of resignations poured in, it became clear his position was untenable.

“This is not sustainable and it will only get worse: for you, for the Conservative Party and most importantly of all the country,” Zahawi said on Twitter. “You must do the right thing and go now.”

Some of those that remained in post, including defence minister Ben Wallace, said they were only doing so because they had an obligation to keep the country safe.

There had been so many ministerial resignations that the government was facing paralysis with no one willing to accept the vacant posts.

Johnson came to power nearly three years ago, promising to deliver Britain’s departure from the European Union and rescue it from the bitter wrangling that followed the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Since then, some Conservatives had enthusiastically backed the former journalist and London mayor while others, despite reservations, supported him because he was able to appeal to parts of the electorate that usually rejected their party.

That was borne out in the December 2019 election. But his administration’s combative and often chaotic approach to governing and a series of scandals have exhausted the goodwill of many of his lawmakers while opinion polls show he is no longer popular with the public at large.

The recent crisis erupted after lawmaker Chris Pincher, who held a government role involved in pastoral care, was forced to quit over accusations he groped men in a private member’s club.

Johnson had to apologise after it emerged that he was briefed that Pincher had been the subject of previous sexual misconduct complaints before he appointed him. The prime minister said he had forgotten.

This followed months of scandals and missteps, including a damning report into boozy parties at his Downing Street residence and office that broke strict COVID-19 lockdown rules and saw him fined by police over a gathering for his 56th birthday.

There have also been policy U-turns, an ill-fated defence of a lawmaker who broke lobbying rules, and criticism that he has not done enough to tackle inflation, with many Britons struggling to cope with rising fuel and food prices.

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Johnson’s resignation was good news for Britain.

“But it should have happened long ago,” he said. “He was always unfit for office. He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale.”

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The Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has directed the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to cancel the Certificate of Title of the controversial 516 hectares of land in Kagadi district.

The accountability committee chaired by Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi, has been investigating allegations of fraud in the Shs2 billion land compensation scam where a city law firm, Lubega & Buzibira Co. Advocates represented 79-year-old Natalia Namuli in the sale of 516 hectares of land.

The money paid to the law firm is part of the controversial Shs10.6 billion supplementary budget that the lands ministry requested for in the Financial Year 2020/2021 to pay land claimants in Buganda and Bunyoro sub-regions. 

COSASE investigations recently unearthed a syndicated fraud where letters of administration and other documents in the names of Natalia Namuli were forged to process a land title for the said estate to effect the payment.

A copy of the letter of administration bears a forged signature of the then Masindi Resident Judge, Justice Ralph Ochan, signed in 2015 yet he had resigned in 2013 to take up his new position as Chairperson of the Public Service Commission.

It later on emerged that Namuli, despite not being an administrator of the said estate, was ‘stage-managed’ and manipulated to sign documents she knew nothing about.

During the Wednesday, 06 July 2022 meeting, Ssenyonyi directed that Mr Baker Mugaino, the Ag. Commissioner for Land Registration, commences the process of cancelling the land title in the names of Namuli because it was issued based on forgery. Apparently, it is due to this forgery that the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) has not yet transferred the land title to its names.

He further directed that the culprits involved in the fraud refund the money to the Government.

“Now that facts have emerged that this was a forgery, ULC cannot acquire a title based on a forgery. It will be building a house on sand; it will crumble. So the parameter interest of government is for that money to be refunded to the Treasury because it cannot be built in an illegality. ULC cannot change and transfer the title that was acquired from thugs,” Ssenyonyi said.

Whereas Mugaino committed to initiate the process of cancellation of the said land title, he is wary of the legal implications that may arise.

“Indeed an illegality is an illegality, but I cannot commit that I will cancel the title because it has legal implications…also, this process involves lots of things such as placing an advert in the newspapers and availability of documents to justify it,” Mugaino said.

The committee pledged to support Mugaino with all the necessary documents to initiate the process, but preferred to hand over Mr Denis Kahabura, the Registrar of Titles, Kibaale district to the Criminal Investigations Directorate for failing to conduct due diligence to verify the authenticity of the letters of administration.

“As Registrar of Titles, you did not do due diligence; someone brings letters of administration which are forged and you cannot see this. In my observation, there was negligence because there was no due diligence done and secondly, potentially, you [Mr Kahabura] were involved in this fraud,” Ssenyonyi said.

During the same meeting, the Committee also faulted Mr Yasin Swad Bogezi, a Senior Government Valuer for approving an inspection report without verifying the parameters used to arrive at the Shs2.039 billion value that was paid. 

According to Bogezi, a comprehensive valuation was not done because of the hostile communities, saying in some cases, they relied on valuation figures from the local leaders.

“We only valued the land and not the buildings. It is not easy to enter communities to value land because in some cases we are beaten and even when we go with the Police, they also get beaten over these land issues. So, sometimes you cannot even take photos or take measurements during valuation for fear of being lynched by the occupants,” Bogezi revealed.

MPs on the committee were not convinced by this rudimentary method of valuation saying the Office of the Government Valuer should have done better to authenticate the figures from their points-man.

“I seem not to be convinced with the method of work. Ordinarily, they have a team on the ground. The team from the Kampala office should have gone and authenticated the figures which they have forwarded to you and made an appropriate report because many of these activities you are doing involve a lot of money which belongs to the taxpayer,” Hon. Gabriel Okumu (NRM, Okoro County) said.

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