By Markson Omagor
The presidential bid by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu a.k.a Bobi Wine is hanging in balance after Court issued Criminal summons against him this morning.
The NUP Chairman and Presidential flagbearer is wanted to appear before the Chief Magistrate’s Court of Wakiso at Wakiso on the 16th day of September 2020.
The summons follows a private prosecution by Kampala City Lawyer, Male Mabirizi, who contends that Bobi Wine consciously lied about his age.
According to the summons; Bobi Wine is required to answer charges of giving false information contrary to Section 115(a) of the Penal Code Act, obtaining registration by false pretense contrary to section 312 of the Penal Code Act and uttering false documents contrary to Sections 315 & 347 of the Penal Code Act.
Lawyer Male Mabirizi has consistently said Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine is unfit to stand for presidency since he lied about his age.
Mabirizi recently petitioned the Electoral Commission seeking to be availed with the academic documents for Kyadondo East MP and National Unity Platform leader.
On Friday last week, the lawyer unveiled the academic documents availed to him by the Electoral Commission in which he said Bobi Wine lied about his age.
“I was availed with all documents presented by Bobi Wine to EC in 2017 Kyadondo East by-election and I discovered dishonesty on his side. He was not born in 1982 as he claims because the Makerere University transcript shows that he was born on February 12, 1980,”Mabirizi told journalists.
“This is something big for someone who wants to stand for presidency to be dishonest. We can’t allow our country be ruled by someone who is not transparent.”
The lawyer told journalists that he would institute a private prosecution against Kyagulanyi to ensure he doesn’t appear on the 2021 ballot paper noting that he will not allow the Director of Public Prosecution take over the case.
The Constitution under Articles 102 and 80 states that a person is not qualified for election as president if he or she has been convicted by a competent court of an offence involving dishonesty whereas the Penal Code under section 115 of the Act and section 76 of the Registration of Persons Act, 2015 criminalise giving false information.
Mr Mabirizi raised a couple of issues in his petition among which he contends that there is no way Bobi Wine who claims to be 38 years old could have finished his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) in 1998. The UACE is the minimum requirement for one to run for president.
Logically, the average number of years that a Ugandan spends in school up to that stage, means the musician-cum-politician started his school at one year of age, which Mr Mabirizi says is impossible.
However, in an exclusive interview, Bobi Wine claimed he has always been an “extra-ordinary person” who did not study all classes like many Ugandans do.
“I should not be blamed for always being extraordinary. People who I went to school with know that I did not study all classes. For instance, I did Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) when I was in Primary Six and I passed to enter Senior One,” Bobi Wine said yesterday.
