Barely two months in office, Makerere University’s Guild President Bala David has been hit with a lawsuit challenging his election. Mr. Bala has been jointly sued with the University.
In a lawsuit, Bukenya Ahmad & 11 Ors v. Makerere University & David Bwiruka Bala, Miscellaneous Cause No. 65 of 2015, twelve students of the University including Mwine Musa who emerged second runner-up, Namulindwa Stellah the only female contestant and three other contestants in the March 2015 Guild Presidential elections have petitioned the High Court Civil Division at Twed Towers (Kampala) seeking among others, a court order quashing Mr. Bala’s election and a declaration to the effect that the office of the Guild President is vacant. They further want court to direct the university to hold fresh elections and an order barring Mr. Bala from participating in them.
The group had earlier on petitioned the university seeking to block Mr. Bala’s swearing-in due to what they called his ineligibility to stand for guild presidency in the first place. They issued an ultimatum to the university, declaring their intention to sue if their request goes unheeded to. The university went ahead and swore him in.
The students insist that Mr. Bala was ineligible to stand in accordance with Art. 9(4)(b)(i) of the Makerere University Students’s Guild Constitution which states that any student seeking to contest for guild presidency must have been a full member of the Guild for atleast two consecutive full semesters on normal progress. The aggrieved students fault the university for having erroneously concluded that Mr. Bala was on normal progress, contrary to the contentious Article.
In Bukenya Ahmad’s affidavit in support of the suit, the gentleman avers that Mr. Bala did not meet the requirement of being a full member of the guild for two consecutive semesters because he got suspended from the university in his first year which affected his being on normal progress for the required two consecutive semesters. To this end, Mr. Bukenya insists that it is unacceptable to have a guild president who was academically injured even before he assumed office.
The latest in a string of lawsuits against the University by its own students stems from the circumstances under which Bala David got to be reinstated back onto the list of contestants for the office of the Guild President by the university’s Academic Policies and Appeals Committee. He had earlier been struck off the same list by the university’s Academic Registrar on account of not being on normal academic progress. Mr. Bala had to run to court for relief alleging that he had not been accorded a fair hearing to state his case and that if he had been given the hearing, he would have proved that he had been on normal progress. Court eventually forced the university’s hand into giving him a fair hearing. Subsequent to the meeting, the university allowed him to contest for the Guild presidency, for which he emerged victor a week later.
It should be noted that Mr. Bala relied on his first year academic results to argue that he had been on normal progress, something that the University confirmed and consequently put him back on the candidates’ list. The suspension that Mr. Bukenya refers to in his affidavit was declared null and void by the High Court Judge, Hon. Benjamin Kabiito in October 2013.
By press time, non of the petitioners was available for a comment but when contacted, Mr. Bala rubbished the applicants’ allegations and referred to them as “busy bodies, sour losers, ill-advised and misguided missiles who are trying to stir up an old quarrel between myself and the university.”
Mr. Bala has retained the services of one of Kampala’s top Education lawyers who represented him in the court case that ensured his reinstatement on the guild presidential candidates’ list, Counsel Isaac Ssemakadde from the Centre for Legal Aid. The applicants are represented by Ekirapa & Co. Advocates.
Hearing of the petition has been set for 28th May 2015.
