Retired Chief Justice Owiny Dollo has declared that he is going to use his retirement from the Office of the Chief Justice to push the tribunal established by President Museveni so that they start hearing the complaint he filed against Justice Esther Kitimbo Kisakye.
President Museveni established the probe committee chaired by former Justices of the Supreme Court justice Galdino Okello and others; he tasked them to probe and establish whether she had a duty to adhere to the practice of sharing her ruling with other justices on the panel.
The panel was also tasked to probe whether Kisakye disobeyed the directive of the Chief Justice as head of the panel, and whether her conduct in delivering the ruling as a single Justice of the Supreme Court in a matter where quorum had been empanelled was in breach of the Uganda Code of Judicial conduct and the practice of the court.
The panel was also tasked to determine whether the verbal public statements made by justice Kisakye put the image of the Judiciary into disrepute and whether her actions of associating with lawyer Kassim Male Mabirizi who filed an application related to the matter and addressing the media and the public to informally address a matter before a court breached the provisions of the Uganda Code of Judicial Conduct.
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The panel also has to determine whether Justice Kisakye absconded from duty when she extended her approved leave period and did not report back for duty at the Supreme Court upon her return from medical leave and whether a recommendation should be made to the President for her to be removed from the office of Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda.
If Justice Kisakye is dismissed with disgrace from the judiciary, it means that she will not be getting the benefits the Supreme Court justices receive upon retiring and these include; health insurance, security, a car and a monthly salary.
Justice Kisakye through her lawyers led by Constitutional law giant Peter Walubiri challenged the establishment of the tribunal at the Constitutional Court and pleaded with Court to declare it unconstitutional.
However, when he appeared on counsel Elison Karuhanga’s Judicial Service Conversation space, a tough speaking Dollo said that he has seen demeaning statements being made against him by Justice Kisakye on different forums especially social media but he has decided to keep quiet because of the office he has been holding.
He narrated that when Justice Kisakye attacked him after the 2021 president elections petition in the media and made a lot of defamatory statements and acted unprofessional, he decided to react by filing a complaint with Judicial Service Commission.
He provided the commission with all his evidence and Kisakye together with her lawyers were given the opportunity to defend themselves. A recommendation was made to the president as the country’s constitution guides to appoint a tribunal to investigate the matter because there is overwhelming evidence against the accused person which the President responded by establishing a tribunal.
Dollo wondered why Kisakye is scared of the tribunal and is fighting to make sure that it fails yet she claims to have evidence pinning him as he told the media at the main gate of the Supreme Court.
Dollo vowed that he is determined to use legal means to expose Justice Kisakye’s lies.
Ono Bwino has established that talks with officials in the Ministry of Finance to allocate billions of monies to facilitate the sitting of the committee are ongoing as Justice Kisakye’s several constitutional petitions and applications are piling up at the Constitutional Court registry.
Justice Kisakye, Dollo fights exploded during the delivering of the ruling in the presidential election petition filed by National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) challenging President Museveni’s victory in the 2021 presidential elections.
Kisakye accused Dollo of using force to confiscate her case files to the extent that he switched off the microphone and electricity when she was reading her findings.
She added that her crime was she declined to share her ruling with Justice Dollo and other Justices on the panel especially the one where lawyer Mabirizi was asking Dollo to recuse himself from the proceedings on grounds that he was a personal lawyer to Museveni before he appointed him Chief Justice.
