Akena says UPC focus now on 2026 elections after another court defeat

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda People’s Congress-UPC faction led by Lira municipality Member of Parliament James Akena will focus on the next round of elections, and not last week’s setback in court.

“These headlines saying the Supreme Court has thrown out Jimmy Akena are completely off-key. I don’t know where people are getting this wrong information,” Akena said.

” I am calling upon all UPC members to continue with the mobilisation for the upcoming elections and also to heighten our preparations and mobilisation for the 2026 General Election.”

Akena says he agrees with the overdue court ruling, but insists it does not affect his stay in office, nor plans for the next UPC elections and the 2026 general elections.

The Supreme Court struck down an application that sought to stay the Court of Appeal orders that nullified Akena’s elections.

In a unanimous decision Supreme Court Justices; Alphonse Owiny-Dollo, Faith Mwondha, Lilian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, Percy Tuhaise, and Mike Chibita, held that the Akena faction had no right to appeal an interlocutory decision of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court without first seeking leave of the same court. In their application, which had Prof. John Kakonge as the respondent after the passing of Joseph Bbosa, the former vice president of UPC, the Akena faction argued that the decision of the Court of Appeal that froze the party bank accounts had an immediate impact on the operations of the party ahead of the 2016 general election.

However, before the matter could be determined, Kakonge raised an objection, saying Akena and the group had no right to appeal in the Supreme Court without seeking leave from the Court of Appeal. The Justices upheld this objection arguing that appeals against interlocutory orders are not allowed unless they are sanctioned by the Court of Appeal. They argued that if they are just allowed, they have the potential of clogging the court system and delaying the substantive appeals from being heard.

“It is clear from the…provisions of law that, there is no right of appeal to the Supreme Court from interlocutory orders which are incidental to the appeal and do not result from the final determination of the appeal itself. It can therefore be concluded from the above jurisprudence that the Court of Appeal’s decision in interlocutory matters is final and not subject to appeal. The rationale of the above position is to avoid multiplicity of unnecessary appeals to this Court and delays in disposing of appeals which have to first await the decision on the interlocutory matters,” the judgment reads in part.

In 2015, Joseph Bbosa, Prof. Kakonge, and Otto Amiza filed an application for Judicial Review in the High Court against UPC and its Electoral Commission challenging the election of Akena as the Party’s President-elect as being illegal and the election being full of malpractices. High Court Judge Yasin Nyanzi held in favor of the Bbosa group by declaring the election of Akena void and illegal for violating the UPC Constitution. This forced the Akena group to run to the Court of Appeal and appeal the matter.

They also lodged a substantive application for a stay of execution of the High Court orders which was granted. However, the court also issued an order stopping the Akena group from operating the bank accounts of the party until the matter was decided. This they opposed and ran to the Supreme Court to challenge it before seeking leave from the Court of Appeal. The Appeal was also finally heard in the Court of Appeal and like the High Court, it also held that Akena was illegally elected UPC president. But despite these two rulings, Akena has continued to hold the fort as the UPC president.

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URN