Interview: Ugandan human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza says presidential election has no validity
By Dennis Kabatto – Counselor Eron Kiiza, Ugandan human rights attorney and lead counsel of Uganda’s media association has called recent presidential election on Thursday, January 14, 2021 invalid.
He made the declaration Wednesday from his home in Kampala during a phone interview for Afrobeatradio show which airs over Pacifica Network Station, WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, www.wbai.org
Attorney Kiiza joins a growing number of election observers including top United States diplomat to Africa, Tibor Nagy who called Uganda’s 2021 electoral process “fundamentally flawed.” The United States State Department also in a statement describes the election as “marred by the harassment of opposition leaders, supporters, suppression of the media and civil society activities, nationwide internet shutdown and the house arrest of National Unity Party opposition leader Bobi Wine as unlawful actions and a worrying trend.”
Speaking to the press in Kampala on Friday January 15, 2021 Bobi Wine calls on Uganda’s development partners and the internal community to reject results of the presidential election declaring fraud and widespread irregularities impeded the people of Uganda’s voting rights. Bobi Wine said he will contest the election result.
Citing limited and restricted election observation by the electoral commission during the radio interview, Attorney Kiiza said about 28 civil society observers were arrested and detained, accredited observers including most of the United States embassy observer mission team’s accreditation requests were denied and worse yet the arbitrary and capricious detention and killing of supporters.
Excerpt from interview with Attorney Kiiza
Talk about the validity of the elections. In terms of irregularities would you and your colleagues at the Ugandan bar association say the presidential election specifically invalid?
The Presidential election is not valid because it was neither free nor fair. It was adulterated by militarism, violence, uneven handedness, biased regulation, internet and social media blackout, harassment of journalists and opposition candidates, political persecution, torture and humiliation of contenders, denial or consultation opportunities, and infringement of a plethora of candidates’ civil liberties.
An observer of elections would be forgiven for mistaking them for a war given the show and application of military might against the opposition and population that was typified by extrajudicial killings of more than 50 people between 18-20th November 2020 following protests against the arrest and detention of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine while he campaigned at Luuka Trading Center in Jinja District, in the Eastern Part of Uganda.
The observation of the elections was very limited with the Electoral Commission denying accreditation to most of the credible observers including foreign observers. Some 28 civil society members who were observing the elections got arrested and detained on election day and only got freedom after the official declaration of the disputed elections.
Leading opposition National Unity Party (NUP) presidential candidate Bobi Wine has said that he will contest the election. Do you honestly think he and the NUP have a chance on over-turning the election?
Every time an election petition is presented before Uganda’s Supreme Court, the court is afforded a unique opportunity to seize a historic moment and exercise a constitutional obligation to secure the sanctity of the Constitution and inject sanity in the conduct and governance of the elections. The only elections envisioned by our Constitution, the supreme law, is a free and fair election.
That is a clear benchmark. In the past, the Supreme Court has been shy to affirm the said constitutional standard and tolerated fraudulent and massively rigged elections on the pretext that the rigging and irregularities had no substantial impact on the outcome of the election. That is a low standard.
This fresh opportunity for the Supreme Court is on the backdrop of two African Supreme Courts in Kenya and Malawi annulling fraudulent and irregular Presidential elections.
The petition is also a good opportunity to immortalize the electoral dirt and document the roles of the various players in sabotaging the peoples’ will for posterity. It is an incredible official record of this important part of our electoral and governance history.
What about elections irregularities and human rights violations including the illegality of limitations on public gathering or right to assembly did you and your colleagues at the Ugandan bar association observed any violations?
The violations were many. Freedoms of assembly, movement and association were mostly denied the journalists covering the opposition candidates. The candidates, the media, the population were tortured, illegally detained, politically persecuted and killed.
Candidates were blocked from accessing media houses, internet and social media were shut down, and coverage of electoral activities were ringfenced to so called accredited journalists.
Massive arrests of opposition campaign agents and the criminalization of their electoral participation including through persecution in military courts were some of the human rights violations. Life, Liberty, dignity and equality were among the most violated during the elections.
Do the Uganda Bar Association plans to contest the election or plan to bring a lawsuit against the validity of the elections?
Not necessarily. The primary responsibility for challenging the electoral irregularities falls on the candidates. Uganda Law Society intends to hold some specific violators to account through criminal and civil proceedings.
Two high court Justices, Judge Esther Nambe and Judge Musa Sskaana denied to hear Bobi Wine’s case of infringement on him and his supporter’s rights to personal liberty and freedom to assemble. Is there any precedent on his type of case? And are you familiar with Mr. Wine’s claim?
It is habeas corpus application. It seeks to have court order for the production of Bobi before court or his unconditional release. Habeas corpus applications are instruments of liberty and judicial mechanisms for checking illegal detentions. They are numerously used here because illegal detention is pervasive.
Bobi Wine has been under illegal house arrest since Thursday, January 14th. on March 26 last year Uganda Constitutional Court nullified parts of Uganda’s public order law, which gave police excessive powers to prohibit public gatherings and protests and declaration of Section 8 of Uganda’s Public Order Management Act 2013 illegal and unconstitutional. How will that declaration impact Bobi Wine’s case?
The arrest is illegal. That particular case is not particularly relevant to the present illegal detention which has nothing to do with public order management.
Relating to the internet shut-down before elections. 6th term President Museveni’s Senior Press Secretary and spokesman Don Wanyama told reporters that the switch-off was for the good of the opposition as well as for the ruling party adding that it was also to thwart off people who wanted to spread hatred and violence. What is your reaction to that assessment or statement?
The internet shut down is a blanket infringement of expression, media and other freedoms. It is was a politically motivated move that was costly for business and robbed Ugandans an opportunity to observe the elections in real time. Wanyama is being dishonest as usual. He is a mouthpiece of a military dictator charged with apologising for dictatorship.
