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Arua High Court has scheduled September 21 for the hearing of an election petition in which former Maracha County MP Denis Lee Oguzu is challenging the election of Nelson Uhuru as his successor.

The petition, which began with a pre-hearing conference at the court on Wednesday, is being heard by Justice Celia Nagawa.

By 4pm, the courtroom was packed with witnesses and residents from Maracha District who sat quietly as lawyers for the petitioner and respondents argued over the issues to be determined during the hearing.

Mr Oguzu, who served two terms in Parliament on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) ticket, is challenging Mr Uhuru, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate, and the Electoral Commission over alleged electoral violations and irregularities during the January 2026 election.

During Wednesday’s scheduling conference, Mr Renato Kania, counsel for Mr Uhuru, argued that the central issue in the petition was whether bribery allegedly committed during the election was done with his client’s knowledge, consent or approval.

He said the petition was based on two grounds-alleged bribery and donations attributed to Mr Uhuru-and asked the petitioner to restrict the case to those matters.

Mr Oguzu’s lawyer, Mr Blaise Rugamba, however, said the issues should be framed more broadly around whether the first respondent committed electoral illegal practices and irregularities during the election period.

He argued that the court should determine whether Mr Uhuru, personally or through his agents, committed any electoral offences with his knowledge, consent or approval.

The petitioner also raised an issue concerning the competence of 13 affidavits filed in support of Mr Uhuru’s answer to the petition, particularly where they allegedly introduced the issue of voter bribery.

A third issue presented to court concerned the remedies available to the parties, including whether the petitioner was entitled to the orders sought.

Mr Rugamba said the petitioner intended to cross-examine Mr Uhuru, his father Mr Severino Embatia and Mr Munduga Kennedy, the returning officer.

Counsel for Mr Uhuru said the respondent had 32 witnesses in the affidavits and expected at least 15 to be subjected to cross-examination.

Justice Nagawa directed the parties to rely on evidence already contained in their affidavits and rejected a request by the petitioner to introduce additional witnesses and video evidence.

‘All your evidence that you tend to rely on is in the affidavits and no more additions,’ Justice Nagawa said.

She also rejected a request by the petitioner to introduce a police officer as an additional witness and video evidence involving Osuta Yusuf, saying the evidence already on record was sufficient for the time-bound hearing.

‘The prayer for additional witnesses by the petitioner of a police officer and video evidence by Osuta Yusuf is rejected. What we have on record is good enough for the court to proceed with which is time bound,’ she said.

Justice Nagawa directed all witnesses named in the affidavits to be available when the hearing starts.

‘Let all the witnesses in the affidavit be around from Monday. Mr Oguzu, bring the witnesses in court and Mr Uhuru, you should also come and defend yourself. Don’t write letters of adjournment. Everything should be in on time. Let all documents come in by Friday,’ she said.

The hearing will begin on Monday, September 21, at 9am.

The petition stems from the January 2026 parliamentary election in Maracha County, in which Mr Uhuru defeated Mr Oguzu and was declared the winner. Mr Oguzu is seeking court intervention over what he alleges were electoral offences and irregularities during the election.

It was beyond politics on Tuesday when President Yoweri Museveni said he felt lost for a while after observing that no such beautiful Greenland-like Zoka Forest was visible in Adjumani District.

‘Whenever I come to Adjumani from Entebbe by helicopter, I pass over Zoka Forest. But today (Tuesday), when I looked through the window, there was no Zoka. I thought I was lost. What happened to Zoka?’ Mr Museveni asked.

Mr Museveni, who was in Adjumani District campaigning for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party candidate ahead of Thursday’s Adjumani West by-election, sought an explanation from the party chairperson, MrCharles Akuku, who attributed the disappearance of the forest cover to encroachment and settlement inside the reserve.

He told the President that more than 500 people had reportedly settled inside the protected area, undertaking illegal activities including charcoal burning and lumbering.

In response, Mr Museveni warned that the government would confront those responsible for destroying the forest. ‘We are going to have war with them,’ Mr Museveni said.

ZOKA FOREST

This is not the first time that the President is calling for war against the illegal loggers and charcoal dealers in the forest.

In August 2019, during the Symposium at Muni University in Arua City, President Yoweri Museveni, in his speech, ordered that ‘Get out of Zoka Forest. It is just a small area. Why do you destroy this small forest? People who are going into the forests and wetlands ignorantly don’t know the consequences; they should get out because they are destroying the environment. We should stand firm and tell them to get out peacefully.’

The remarks come amid growing concern over the rapid degradation of Zoka Central Forest Reserve, one of the key natural forests in the West Nile sub-region.

The rain forest has become a hotbed for plundering, especially the Afzellia African species, Shea trees and others, which are harvested for timber and charcoal.

Two weeks ago, Adjumani District Council passed a resolution calling for urgent measures to protect and restore the reserve following revelations of extensive illegal activities inside the protected area.

Among the resolutions is the immediate eviction of illegal encroachers and the opening and clear marking of the boundaries of Zoka Central Forest Reserve.

The council also called for stronger enforcement of forestry laws and closer coordination between government agencies, district leaders, cultural institutions and communities to halt further destruction.

Adjumani District Chairperson John Anyanzo said the district council’s resolution was intended to complement ongoing efforts by Parliament and other stakeholders to protect the forest.

Parliamentary alarm

The district’s action follows a fact-finding visit by the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, which recently assessed the condition of Zoka Central Forest Reserve.

The committee, led by its chairperson, Mr Dan Kimosho, and deputy chairperson, Ms Ann Nankabirwa, visited the forest alongside district leaders, councillors, security officials, technical officers, cultural leaders, conservation groups and community members.

The visit exposed extensive human activity inside the reserve, including illegal logging, charcoal burning, farming and encroachment.

The committee also found makeshift camps reportedly occupied by illegal loggers and charcoal dealers. Women and children were also seen in some of the settlements, raising concerns about the growing nature of human habitation inside the protected area.

The presence of settlements, district leaders say, makes enforcement more complicated and increases the risk of further destruction of the forest.

The Team Leader of Friends of Zoka, Mr William Amanzuru, has often called for implementation of the law without compromise on saving the forest. ‘Every day, we cry for this forest to be protected because it has been under siege for decades. The forest is virtually gone because we have well-connected people operating illegally in the forest.’

He said there are illegal settlements and construction of petrol stations that have been done in the forest. ‘These people are most times supported by the military because when you impound logs or charcoal, you get threatening calls from anonymous people in the military,’ he said.

The district council’s resolutions now put pressure on responsible government agencies to enforce the law while balancing conservation measures with the concerns of communities living around the forest.

The developments have also renewed calls for stronger protection of Zoka, amid concerns that continued logging, charcoal production and agricultural expansion could further reduce the forest cover if urgent action is not taken.

A total ban on the movement of livestock has been imposed in Nakasongola District after authorities confirmed the death of 55 cows due to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).

The indefinite restriction announced on Tuesday now expands to the entire district, compared to the earlier one, which only targeted Wibinyonyi Sub-county issued on September 2, 2026.

Making the pronouncement on behalf of the District Security Committee and Veterinary Department, Mr Festus Bandeeba, the Nakasongola Resident District Commissioner, disclosed that the decision follows the confirmation of FMD in the district, which has so far claimed 55 cows and affected 1,300 animals in Wabinyonyi, Kakooge, Nakitoma, Nabiswera and Lwampanga sub-counties.

‘The livestock movement ban cuts across all Sub-counties in Nakasongola. Because the District is a transit route for livestock from other districts, the security teams are under instruction not to allow any trucks unloading or loading livestock through the major transit routes.” Mr Bandeeba said on Tuesday.

Adding: ”Both the farmers and traders are cautioned against flouting the current quarantine guidelines.’

Mr Rogers Kulaba Ssemanda, the Nakasongola LC5 Chairperson, said the animal quarantine will hit hard as families are expected to sell their animals to take their children back to school.

‘It is unfortunate that the FMD has struck at a time when several of the parents who derive their respective livelihood from the livestock industry are taking their children to school.” He regretted.

Noting that: ”The District security team and the other stakeholders are already aware of the inconvenience and challenges that come with the quarantine. We have no other option outside the quarantine.’

Like several of the other cattle corridor Districts that have had repeated FMD outbreaks, Nakasongola District is prone to FMD outbreaks that have remained a big challenge to the livestock farmers.

On January 27, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) lifted a year -long livestock quarantine that had been slapped on Nakasongola District after the outbreak of FMD in January 2024.

The new livestock quarantine slapped on Nakasongola, according to a section of the livestock farmers, is worrying.

Mr Stephen Misanga Kato, a livestock farmer in Nabiswera Subcounty, says that while individual farmers are embracing the mass vaccination campaign against the FMD disease, government agencies are failing to check the livestock in transit through the cattle corridor regions.

‘We may not effectively fight the FMD disease in Nakasongola District if we fail to check the animals in transit through Nakasongola. Our efforts as individual farmers to embrace the FMD vaccination campaign should not be paralysed by the ineffectiveness of particular guidelines meant to check the livestock in transit,’ he told the Monitor on September 15, 2026.

In February 2024, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, told Parliament that his Ministry needed Shs671bn to acquire vaccines for an estimated 44 million animals to be vaccinated twice in a year to check the FMD disease.

Cabinet approved Shs10bn for the purchase of FMD vaccines targeting the FMD high-risk areas in the Country.