The High Court in Kampala on Thursday quashed the impeachment of Nkumba Univ Guild President Henry Byansi that had been conducted during an emergency sitting by the Nkumba Guild Parliament on 10th February 2017. Court has also awarded the law student Ugx 5,000,000/= in damages for the unlawful impeachment, besides ordering the university to further pay him costs of the case, believed to be in the region of Ugx 100M.
On 10th February, an impromptu Guild session chaired by House Speaker Arekaho Allan moved a vote of no confidence in and subsequently impeached Byansi for unclear reasons. The same session later installed Jokuda Betty as the new Guild President. At the time of his purported impeachment, Byansi’s term of office as Guild President was left with only three weeks to expire.
Now, in a ruling that was delivered Thursday at 1:30pm, Lady Justice Henrietta Wolayo held that impeaching Byansi through a process that gave him no fair opportunity to defend himself was unlawful.
“The Applicant [Byansi] had earlier indicated his willingness to participate in the proceedings to remove him [from the Guild seat]. The logical conclusion is that [he] was not notified of the proceedings of 10th February and therefore … the adverse decision to censure him in that meeting was made without according him the opportunity to be heard,” the Judge held.
“The guild parliament acted with procedural impropriety and therefore the Applicant was removed from office without observing due process. The decision to impeach the applicant was not unlawful but the process of his removal was tainted with irregularities and unfairness.”
In her ruling, Lady Justice Wolayo faulted Nkumba University administration for having condoned the flawed process that resulted in the impeachment of Byansi and and consequently directed them to compensate Byansi with Ugx 5M.
The Judge observed that the way Byansi’s impeachment process was conducted amounted to denying him his constitutional entitlement to be fairly treated by administrative bodies such as Nkumba’s Students’ Guild Parliament.
Byansi found himself in the eye of the storm late last year when his electorate roughed and almost lynched him for allegedly embezzling Ugx 12M that was meant to facilitate Miss Nkumba preparations and other activities.
“I have faith in the rule of law. It is the University officials and the two students [Allan and Betty] that have University financial loss as a result of the loss in Court,” – Byansi said when approached for comment. He was represented in Court by his lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde of Centre for Legal Aid.
