Lawyer Male Mabirizi has sued former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu for obtaining a driving permit by false pretense.
This follows Mabirizi’s letter to the Chief Licensing Officer of Motor Vehicles under the Ministry of Works and Transport seeking certified copies of the signed application for driving license and renewals for Kyagulanyi. The letter was written on August 30, 2020, and on September 10, the same year. Works Ministry Permanent Secretary, Waiswa Bageya replied indicating that the accused is a holder of a Class B driving permit issued on August 3, 2017.
On the permit, it is indicated that Kyagulanyi was born on 2 February 1982. But Mabirizi is challenging the legality of Kyagulanyi’s age arguing that his year of birth contradicts that of 2 February 1980 that he filled in his 1996 Uganda Certificate of Education-UCE entry form at Kitante Hill School, the 1997 admission record at Kololo Senior Secondary School and his registration forms at Makerere University.
Mabirizi instituted the criminal proceedings at the Nawaka Magistrates Court in Kampala and now wants the court to summon the accused to answer for his dishonesty.
While speaking to journalists at the Nakawa Court on Wednesday, Mabirizi pointed out that Kyagulanyi has a bad history of avoiding court summons and implored the presiding Magistrate this time to issue a warrant of arrest if he fails to appear before the court.
This is the 5th time Mabirizi is suing Kyagulanyi on matters relating to his age discrepancies. In 2020 when Kyagulanyi declared interest to contest for the presidency, Mabirizi, an adherent of the rule of law, researched for his academic papers and found information on the Parliament website showing that he was born on 2 February 1982.
Another case was in March 2020, when Mabirizi discovered that Kyagulanyi’s passport information at the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship indicated that at the time of obtaining his first passport, Kyagulanyi was 18 years old yet evidence showed that he was aged 20.
It is against this background that Mabirizi questioned whether Kyagulanyi studied primary one for just two years, since he completed Primary Leaving Examination at age nine, lower secondary and advanced level at 13 and 16 years respectively. He then instituted private criminal charges against him at Wakiso and Buganda Road Courts accusing him of giving false information.
But the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) took over the case following a successful application before High Court Judge Wilson Kwesiga on October 16, 2020, until the case was discontinued two days ago. The matter has also been tabled by the East African Court of Justice where Mabirizi is challenging the High Court’s decision to allow the DPP to take over his case.
Attempts to seek a response from Kyagulanyi, the National Unity Platform-NUP President were futile, but he has previously explained that his father changed his age to enable him to sit for the Primary Leaving Exams-PLE after being helped to skip Primary Six. He asserts that he swore an affidavit in March 2000 to correct the said anomaly.