Rwampara East: Hon Julius Tusiime and Hon Ngabirano Sweat Plasma As The Election Petition Takes A New Twist

By Musa Rwamigoye 

 

High Court in Mbarara under the watch of Lady Justice Ikit Mary has finished hearing the election petition cross-examination conducted by Counsel Frank Kandiho representing first respondent, Hon Ngabirano Richard, Member of Parliament representing people of Rwampara East Constituency. The election petition challenging the parliamentary victory of Hon Ngabirano Charles was filed by former Member of Parliament of the same constituency Hon Tusiime Julius Karuhanga, who says that the Rwampara East parliamentary elections of January 15th 2026 were entangled with electoral fraud, voter fraud and election scam in some areas. 

 

 In his petition filed by Hon Tusiime Karuhanga Julius through his Lawyers from M/s Signature Advocates, Hon Tusiime Julius alleges that the camp of his opponent Hon Ngabirano Charles (Independent candidate) connived and conspired with elections officials and, hence falsification of results at some polling stations. Hon Tusiime Julius thinks that in some areas (polling station) he won massively but his votes were switched to his opponent at the time of filling election declaration results forms. Electoral records shows that Hon Ngabirano Charles scored 12306 votes and Hon Tusiime Julius Karuhanga scored 11609 votes.

According to Hon Tusiime Julius, the purpose of petitioning is to request the court to cancel the declaration of Hon Ngabirano Charles as the winner and order for a by-election. In his petition, Hon Tusiime Julius Karuhanga indicates 8 polling stations where he asserts that recommended voting protocols were not followed. The petitioner alleges that in all 8 polling stations indicated there occurred disenfranchisement of voters .

 

CROSS-EXAMINATION BATTLE.

A known tough Counsel by the names of Frank Kandiho, representing the Hon Ngabirano Charles on spot challenged the petitioner who challenged the victory of his client on a technical ground, saying that the person in the witness box is not the real person that petitioned. On this point, Counsel Kandiho Frank asked the petitioner to tell court his full names visa vie the names owning the petition. 

By being much observant, Counsel Kandiho Frank had observed that the petitioner had made a cardinal mistake by misspelling his names. Instead of writing his names as Tusiime Julius Karuhanga, the petitioner typed Tumusiime Julius Karuhanga hence Counsel Kandiho Frank requesting Lady Justice Ikit Mary to record how the petition is vague.

When Lady Justice Ikit Mary requested the petitioner to say something on the matter raised by the counsel of the 1st respondent, Hon Julius Tusiime said it was a typical typing error. At first, Counsel Kandiho Frank insisted that the petition should be dismissed on technicalities but the lawyers of the petitioner intervened and pleaded with Lady Justice Ikit Mary to allow the case to proceed since it was a typing error.

As if that was not only the typing error, Counsel Kandiho Frank continued to challenge the petition on grounds of technicalities by pulling out Names of individuals and Polling stations in the petition poorly spelled. Being an obstinate lawyer at some point in the cross-examination session, Counsel Kandiho Frank challenged the petition grammatical errors but Lady Justice Ikit Mary would cool down the situation by requesting Kandiho Frank to give time the witness to explain. However, Kandiho Frank insisted that what he needs from the witness is to say No or Yes.

By the time cross examination ended, Counsel had trashed the petition paragraph by paragraph. To know that Kandiho Frank was seriously harsh on the petition while cross examining the witness, at some point the witness would be stressed and anxious. In fact, the witness looked to be burned out whenever Kandiho Frank started cross examining him on affidavits supporting the petition.

 Like the Runyakitara proverb that goes “Amarira g’ente n’amashemererwa g’embwa.”, translated as The tears of the cow are the joy of the dog, Hon Ngabirano Charles was seen comfortably enjoying the cross-examination session as his Lawyer Kandiho Frank squeezing the petitioner(witness). 

Court adjourned to 2:00pm.Details to follow.