Faulty Court Computers Fail Ruling on Makerere Guild Petition

Bazil Mwotta, the guild elect who petitioned high court to declare him the leagally elected guild boss
Written by: 
Christopher Tusiime

On Wednesday May 25, more than 100 Makerere students gathered at the High court Kampala chambers to hear a judgment, but any expectations of a resolution were dashed.

Squeezed out in the Twed Towers building, the students had hoped to find out who would be declared their guild president, between Bazil Mwotta and Roy Sembogga.

The case was lodged by Mwotta, a second-year student of Education, who was the declared winner of the March 11 elections. Mwotta was declared winner after garnering 4,594 votes (or 36.3 per cent of the vote), against Sembogga’s 4,276 (33.6 per cent).

Mwotta was hoping to stop a plan by the university electoral tribunal to hold fresh elections at the College of Education and External Studies (Cees), where it was thought ballots had been rigged to fail Sembogga.

The planned rerun of votes did not take place as students of education refused to take part.

The case is before Justice Stephen Musota, who was due to make his ruling in the matter. Instead, a court clerk announced that proceedings would not continue since, “computers had crashed”, making it impossible to access important court documents.

The hearing was postponed to June 2 and no further explanations were given to students, who shortly marched out of courtroom in confusion. With the semester at Makerere officially closing yesterday, on May 30, the students are dismayed that they will have to wait until October to install their guild president.