Monitor Team
27 April 2011
Kyenjojo/Masindi — The Kyenjojo District chairman, Mr James Byamukama, has bowed to pressure from his opponents and vacated his seat on grounds that he is ineligible to be in the office after he switched camps. Mr Byamukama, also the ruling NRM party district boss, communicated his resignation in a letter to Local Government Minister Adolf Mwesige, saying he has vacated the office in accordance with the Local Government Act 2010 (Amended). According to the Local Government (Amendment) Act 2010, if a person leaves a political party in which he was elected to the council and joins another or becomes independent, he automatically loses his or her office.
2007 episode
The petitioners argue that Byamukama in 2007 contested as an independent candidate and won the LC5 seat beating Mr William Kaija in a fresh poll after the earlier one had been nullified by court due to election malpractices. He reached an agreement with the NRM and became its district party chairman after the win. But in the just-concluded elections, he stood as the NRM flag bearer without first resigning from office which they contend is contrary to the Constitution. He could not pick our calls by the time we went to press yesterday but his deputy, Mr Christopher Mwesige, said, “It is true he has vacated office. I am now in-charge.” “He wrote to the Minister for Local Government and the copy is on our public notice board.”
Mr Mwesige added that Mr Byamukama has already handed over the office keys to him and other instruments to the respective technical officers. Mr Byamukama’s recent position follows a petition from the former district chairman, Mr Kaija, and three others to the Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Moses Kanyarutokye, asking him to write to Byamukama to vacate the office on grounds that he was occupying it illegally.
The petitioners also wrote to Mr Mwesige contending that the national Electoral Commission should declare the district chairmanship vacant and plan for fresh elections. However, there seems to be no proper interpretation of the law.
While responding to a petition in which a voter in Masindi sued the area mayor-elect, Mr Joshua Amanyire, for switching political camps from independent to NRM, Minister Mwesige in his April 21 letter addressed to Kanyamu’s lawyers said the law only affected Members of Parliament. In February, Speaker Edward Ssekandi ordered 77 lawmakers who changed political platforms ahead of this year’s election to vacate Parliament.
Reported by Francis Mugerwa, Felix Basiime & George Muzoora
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