The Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny Dollo and five others have up to today to file their defence in a case brought against them by Supreme Court Judge, Esther Kisaakye.
Justice Kisaakye sued the Chief Justice and others seeking a permanent injunction restraining them from withholding funds drawn from the consolidated fund and refusing to pay her salary and other allowances without following due process.
In the petition filed before the Constitutional Court, Kisaakye who is seeking 24 orders among dozens of other declarations wants the record showing that she has been away without official leave quashed and be assigned duties and reinstated as the administrative head of the Supreme Court.
The others jointly sued with Owiny-Dollo are; Pius Bigirimana the Permanent Secretary to the Judiciary, Sarah Langa Siu, the Chief Registrar of Courts of Judicature, Apophia Tumwine, the Commissioner of Human Resources Judiciary, the Judicial Service Commission and the Attorney General. The period within which they are expected to file their defence elapses today.
Kisaakye says that effective March 18, 2021, during the Presidential Election Petition filed by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu against President Yoweri Museveni, the respondents jointly engaged in acts that are inconsistent with the constitution.
They include the confiscation of her file by Owiny-Dollo before she could read her decision arising from that presidential petition, closure of the Supreme Court on the orders of the Chief Justice and government on March 19, 2021, the issuance of a deceitful and defamatory press statement and denial of funds for medical treatment.
The others are failure to recognize and or follow seniority at the Supreme Court, secretive investigations against her disguised as a general inquiry, denial of leave, denial of her driver and bodyguards leave and allowances, Chief Justice’s refusal to allocate her work, withdrawal and refusal to reinstate her research assistant, denial of a letter of undertaking to her bankers and her subsequent removal from the judiciary and government payroll.
According to the evidence before court, the Chief Justice directed police officers to close the Supreme Court gate to prevent court users and the media from accessing it (court) and consequently prevented Kisaakye from delivering her ruling to the parties.
