Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni speaks to the click after balloting at a polling location in Kiruhura district, Uganda, on Jan. 15, 2026.
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Supreme Court docket in Kampala has Confirmed President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the Duly Elected President of the Uganda.
Sitting in Kampala used to be on Thursday, the Court docket used to be constituted by the nine Justices of the Supreme Court docket led by Chief Justice Dr Flavian Zeija in a unanimous resolution. They’ve allowed broken-down Presidential candidate Robert Kasibante to withdraw his petition he had filed appealing the victory of President Museveni in his Petition No. 01 of 2026.
Turning in the resolution, Dr Zeija first said the Court docket had reached one unanimous resolution on the withdrawal of the petition, but noted that there used to be a dissenting judgment diminutive to the priority of costs. He then tasked Justice Muzamir Mutangula Kibeedi to read the lead judgment on behalf of the majority.
Justice Kibeedi read out the names of the eight justices who shaped the unanimous resolution permitting the withdrawal. Chief Justice Zeija and Justices Percy Night Tuhaise, Mike Chibita, Elizabeth Musoke, Stephen Musota, Catherine Bamugemereire, Monica Kalyegira Mugenyi and Justice Kibeedi himself. A separate judgment used to be signed by Justice Christopher Izama Madrama, who dissented finest on the search data from of costs.
In its majority resolution, the Court docket has indicated that the institution of a presidential election petition is no longer an usual civil dispute but a topic of the very supreme constitutional significance. Accordingly, the justices dangle observed that a petitioner cannot stroll into court docket casually and then be left to exit in any design he needs after invoking the Court docket’s jurisdiction to scenario the consequence of a presidential election.
They described the penalties of submitting this form of petition as preloaded and likening them to congenital twins inseparable from the resolution to scenario the outcomes. The Court docket emphasized that a presidential election petition relates to the largest effect of business to your complete land and carries severe logistical and financial implications and that by any individual going forward to scenario the outcomes from bigger than 50,000 polling stations inside strict constitutional timelines, he must dangle diagnosed the foreseeable conditions.
The bulk Justices noted that such penalties are foreseeable and wants to be carefully weighed by a petitioner and his acceptable advisers earlier than initiating proceedings.
His Lordship the Chief Justice of Uganda Dr Flavian Zeija
Kasibante had utilized on February 5, 2026 to withdraw each the substantive petition and a connected software program attempting to search out access to abet close electoral records held by the Electoral Price.
He defined that he lacked the financial capacity to preserve a nationwide forensic audit of electoral provides, alongside side biometric voter verification programs, scanners and servers. Without the evidence he hoped to compose thru the discovery software program, he conceded that the petition may possibly possibly additionally no longer meet the wanted fashioned of proof.
The respondents – President Museveni, the Electoral Price and the Attorney Identical outdated – did no longer oppose the withdrawal but asked the Court docket to brush off the petition with costs. They argued that they’d expended mountainous resources defending a case they maintained used to be without merit and incapable of proof. They extra stated that there used to be no negotiated settlement or agreement with Kasibante relating to the withdrawal.
In addressing the deserves of the software program, the majority discovered that the evidence on story used to be insufficient to preserve the petition and held that denying the withdrawal would again no expedient reason.
“As such, Presidential Election Petition No. 01 of 2026 is hereby withdrawn,” the Court docket dominated.
The justices observed that Kasibante’s petition becomes no longer the first presidential election petition to be withdrawn since the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution. They noted that outdated presidential election choices must dangle supplied steering to prospective petitioners alongside side Kasibante himself relating to the gravity and penalties of appealing election outcomes, cautioning that such choices will dangle to silent no longer be taken casually or without stout appreciation of attendant acceptable and financial implications.
Per established precedent, the Court docket reaffirmed that when a presidential election petition is withdrawn, the candidate earlier declared winner by the Electoral Price is conclusively deemed to were duly elected.
The Supreme Court docket has then long past forward and cited its earlier resolution in the 2021 Presidential petition filed by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, the effect the majority held that the belief remains soft legislation that the actual person declared by EC wants to be duly confirmed as the Elected President.
The Court docket has due to the this reality declared that the petition towards Museveni is conclusively taken as withdrawn and that he stands duly elected as President of Uganda.
Basically the most contentious concern earlier than the nine-member panel used to be referring to the costs of the case.
The respondents relied on provisions of the legislation governing withdrawal of presidential petitions, which whisper that the effect a petition is withdrawn, the petitioner “will seemingly be liable” to pay costs.
The bulk examined comparative jurisprudence, alongside side a 1982 resolution of the Court docket of Appeal of Jamaica interpreting the same statutory language, and realizing of how neighbouring jurisdictions equivalent to Kenya address presidential election disputes.
While acknowledging the wanted phrasing of the statute, the justices held that the Court docket retains discretion in determining whether or no longer to award costs.
Balancing the dangle to supply protection to the Court docket from meritless petitions towards the constitutional crucial of making sure access to justice, the majority concluded that ordering Kasibante to pay costs would no longer again the public interest.
They dangle reasoned that condemning him to costs would no longer enable the nationwide therapeutic project to transfer forward. Accordingly, they dangle ordered that each occasion bears its have costs.
On the opposite hand, Justice Izama Madrama dissented on that instruct concern of costs putting forward a unusual peek relating to the award of costs, though he agreed with the resolution to enable the withdrawal.
Justice Madrama has reasoned that permitting Kasibante to stroll away casually without paying costs to President Museveni, Electoral Price and the Attorney Identical outdated may possibly possibly well be undermining the statutory powers given to Parliament to gain prison pointers as the Parliament under allotment 61 of the Presidential Election Guidelines indicated that if one withdraws his petition, he’ll dangle to silent as properly pay costs to the respondents.
The withdrawal now brings to the close of the presidential proceedings springing up from the January 15th 2026 presidential election. The Electoral Price had declared Museveni as the eventual winner of the election with 7,946,772 votes, sooner than Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, who got here 2d with 2,741,238 votes.
The a vary of candidates incorporated Nathan Nandala Mafabi with 209,039 votes, Gen Gregory Mugisha Muntu with 59,276 votes, Frank Bulira with Forty five,959 votes, and Mubarak Munyagwa 31,666 votes, while Kasibante himself obtained 33,440 votes.
Presidential Petitioner Robert Kasibante in the Heart at the Supreme Court docket together alongside with his supporters.
Kasibante accuses the Electoral Price of failing to conduct a free and soft election. He had alleged frequent irregularities, alongside side violence, voter bribery, misuse of whisper resources, failure to gazette polling stations, lack of transparency in vote counting and consequence transmission, and biased conduct by whisper security agencies.
Kasibante had also asked the Supreme Court docket to nullify President Museveni’s election, raze the declared outcomes, and repeat unusual elections in accordance with the legislation. Talking to Uganda Radio Community after the resolution, the Director for Staunch Products and providers in the National Resistance Circulation Celebration Counsel Enoch Barata has welcomed the Court docket resolution asserting President Museveni is now in a position to be sworn in Might possibly possibly possibly well also for the timeframe of effect of business 2026-2031.
****
URN
www.self reliant.co.ug, https://www.self reliant.co.ug/supreme-court docket-confirms-museveni-as-duly-elected-president-of-uganda/
