In documents filed in the Masaka High Court, President Museveni’s youngest brother, Godfrey Aine Kaguta, alias Sodo, has set out to defend his parliamentary seat by insisting he completed the required minimum formal education: advanced level.
Sodo’s election as Mawagola North Member of Parliament (MP) has been challenged by his competitor, John Jet Tumwebaze, partly on the account that he has no Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) or its equivalent, as the law requires.
In his defence, as seen by the Weekend Monitor, Sodo claims that his academic documents have been verified and confirmed by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb). Instead of the certificates that the law requires in his defence, Sodo attaches copies of letters of verification from UNEB for the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) that he obtained from Kaaro High School in Kiruhura District.
Tumwebaze, a partner at Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA), disputes both Sodo’s O-level and A- level results. Tumwebaze insists that Sodo was never issued neither an O-level nor an A- level certificate by Uneb since he failed the examinations. Documents filed by Sodo that have a Uneb stamp indicate that, at O-level, he obtained F9s (fail) in Christian Religious Education (CRE), Mathematics, English and History. The result slip furrier shows that Sodo got a P8s (pass) in Geography, Commerce and Kiswahili. He also got P7s (pass) in both Agriculture and Art. The only credit Sodo got was in English.
Tumwebaze’s argument
We understand that Tumwebaze plans to argue that Sodo didn’t pass the subjects that would have enabled him to get the combination of History, Economics and Divinity (HED) at A-level. Under standard ministry of education selection guidelines, a candidate must score a credit 6 or better at O-level-where a Uganda Certificate of Education or UCE is at stake-to carry a subject over to A-level as a principal academic combination.
At A-level, per court documents seen by this newspaper, Sodo obtained Fs in General Paper, History, Economics and Divinity. He only got one principal pass in Kiswahili.
In his petition, Tumwebaze says that during nomination, Sodo didn’t present to the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Ssembabule district returning officer his UCE and UACE certificates. Notwithstanding, he adds, EC officials allowed Sodo to stand as a Member of Parliament without qualification. Tumwebaze further accuses the EC of refusing to provide him with the UCE and UACE certificates Sodo presented to the electoral body at the time of nomination.
Tumwebaze points out that while Sodo’s academic documents have the name ‘Aine Godfrey,’ during nomination the candidate called himself ‘Aine Godfrey Kaguta.’ Sodo, Tumwebaze argues, ‘shouldn’t have been nominated based on documents that relate to a different person.’
Sodo’s chances
In response to the variation in the names on his documents, Sodo says it was legally settled and clarified by a deed poll he ran in the news media a couple of years ago. Sodo further contends that Tumwebaze’s grounds of challenging his victory on account of having no requisite academic papers constitute what he calls ‘a pre-polling complaint’, which, according to him, should have been addressed before polling and not at this stage when he is in parliament.
History, however, shows that a number of lawmakers have been thrown out of the House on account of having no requisite academic papers. For instance, in 2011, when Muhammad Muyanja-Mbaabali won the Bukoto South seat at the first time of asking, his happiness was short-lived. This was because the High Court and later the Court of Appeal upheld Mathias Nsubuga Birekerewo’s claims that Muyanja-Mbaabali’s academic documents were a work of fraud.
When Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, then a High Court judge, was cancelling Muyanja-Mbabaali’s victory, he said the academic papers he had presented, such as a Bachelor’s degree from Nkumba University and a Diploma in Public Administration and Management from a Malaysian college, were highly dubious.
It is not just Muyanja-Mbabaali that was left licking his wounds. After the 2011 elections, Paul Mwiru challenged Nathan Igeme Nabeta’s victory in the High Court. Mwiru, the current Opposition whip in the 12th Parliament, contended that Nabeta had no requisite academic papers and that the latter had bribed voters. Both the High Court and Court of Appeal agreed with Mwiru that Nabeta’s academic papers hadn’t been evaluated by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) in consultation with Uneb.
‘I’m not persuaded by the case put forward by the third respondent [NCHE] when it claims that once it issues a certificate for one election, the certificate is valid for future elections. This would tantamount to amending the law. Equating academic papers for purposes of elections is not a once-in-a-lifetime exercise unless the law is amended,’ Justice Constance Byamugisha, who has since passed on, ruled in her lead judgement.
‘The evidence on record proves that there was no consultation between UNEB and the 3rd respondent [NCHE] on the totality of the 1st respondent’s academic qualification before the issuance of the certificate dated 4th August 2010. The only inquiry that the third respondent made about the first respondent’s academic papers concerned the authenticity of his ‘O’ level certificate. Uneb replied to that query. It stated that the ‘O’ level certificate was genuine. This inquiry, in my view, did not satisfy the requirements of the law. There was no other evidence showing the participation of UNEB in the equating exercise,’ Justice Byamugisha added.
More claims
Besides questionable academic papers, Tumwebaze wants the High Court to cancel Sodo’s victory on grounds that the latter invited, co-opted, deployed and relied on soldiers of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). Tumwebaze also claims that Sodo relied on officials from the Office of the Resident District Commissioner of Ssembabule. The case is being presided over by Justice Bernard Namanya, who took on the mantle after Justice Thomas Ochaya recused himself on grounds of being sick.
Tumwebaze says that the combination of the army and officials from the RDC’s offices militarised the election, violated several electoral laws and facilitated the EC’s illegal activities. These activities, Tumwebaze further says, materially discredited the concept of a free and fair election in Mawogola North.
‘The first respondent [Sodo] or his agents brought armed UPDF soldiers to numerous polling stations including Rwekishungi CoU [ Church of Uganda] polling station; Kyolola Trading Center Polling Station; Kabarekera primary School (A-KYOM) polling station; Kashongoire Church polling station; Kanoni primary school polling station; Kabarekera primary school (KYON-Z) polling station; Kanoni-Kakukuru polling station,’ Tumwebaze says, adding that soldiers took over at the above polling stations and facilitated ballot stuffing, multiple voting as well as voting by unregistered voters.
Tumwebaze also alleges that on polling day several of his agents, polling supervisors were brutalised and detained by armed UPDF soldiers such Mugenyi Robert, Vincent Kirinya and David Bahati, who he says assisted their release from police custody.
‘Your petitioner avers owing to the above, the second [ Electoral Commission] and third [Gracious Aryaija, the Ssembabule district returning officer] respondents failed to ensure that the polling took place in a free, fair, and secure environment contrary to section 60 (1) of the parliamentary Elections Act, Cap 177, as there was massive voter intimidation, actual violence meted agents, supervisors and known supporters of the petitioner, and wrongful arrests of the petitioner’s supervisors and agents,’ Tumwebaze says.
In response Sodo says he wasn’t aware of the unspecified actors or security personnel that intimidated voters, caused violence and disruptions during the election.
‘I am not an employee, officer or member of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) neither do I hold any known position in the armed forces and I don’t have command and control of soldiers of UPDF. I didn’t direct or command any security personnel on election day or at all,’ Sodo says.