Constitutional Court judge Justice Keneth Kakuru has said that until the ‘President of the People’s Government’ Dr. Kiiza Besigye to first denounce all activities related to his shadow government, he will be presumed guilty of contempt of court.
Justice Kakuru’s follows a Constitutional Court ruling made this week which denied Besigye a remedy in his 2011 petition against sections of the Penal Code Act, under which police clamped down walk-to-work protests, and his detention.
In the ruling, the judges noted that since Besigye argues that there is no validly elected government, it implies that there are no legally constituted courts of law and therefore they can’t grant him the remedies he was seeking.
The justices reasoned that Besigye’s gesture of denouncing a legally elected government tantamount to contempt of all institutions including courts of law. They noted that if indeed President Museveni was not elected by the people of Uganda, it would follow that he has no powers to appoint judges. And therefore, the justices and judges appointed by him following the 2011 and 2016 elections have no judicial powers as they were appointed unconstitutionally.
“Every Court has a right to deny audience to any person found guilty of contempt until he purges himself or herself of that contemp.” Justice Kakuru advised.
He noted that contempt is a tool of courts of justice that requires all persons to honor and respect courts and their decisions.
On May 11, 2016, Besigye secretly swore himself in as president of Uganda, a day before the official swearing in ceremony of President Yoweri Museveni. Besigye later went ahead to appoint what he calls a ‘peoples government’ and formed a people’s assembly, a perpetual entity that he and some politicians still believes in.
