Constitutional Court Suffers Shortage of Staff for Zaake’s Case

The Constitutional Court administrator, Justice Geoffrey Kiryabiwre has revealed that the Court suffers a manpower shortage on quorum to hear Mityana Municipality MP, Francis Zaake case in which he filed seeking to overturn his controversial removal from the position of commissioner of Parliament for allegedly insulting Speaker Anita Among on social media.

Hon Zaake on Monday 05 June 2023 stormed the Constitutional Court in Kampala demanding the judgment in his case. However, the court's administrator Justice Geoffrey Kiryabiwre told Mr Zaake who was accompanied by his lawyer, Erias Lukwago, that court suffered manpower shortage on quorum following the promotion of Justice Steven Musota to the Supreme Court. Justice Musota was one of the five judges who was on the panel that heard Mr Zaake’s petition.

On March 10th 2022, the Parliament resolved to remove Zaake from the office of Commissioner and required him to apologize to Parliament within a week.

The removal from office followed a report made by the Committee of Rules, Discipline and Privileges with amendments presented by the chairperson Abdu Katuntu which found Zaake in breach of public trust and Parliament decorum.

In his petition, Zaake accuses the Rules Committee members to having received 6 million shillings worth tax payers money as a reward for participating in the Committee proceedings that resulted in his removal from office.

According to Zaake, this was a bribe and therefore he wants the court to compel each beneficiary to refund the same to the consolidated fund.

He adds that the whole resolution was made in contravention with the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure because there was no quorum in the house having passed it without obtaining the vote of at least half of all voting members of Parliament.