By Our Reporter
NATIONAL
Controversial city lawyer, Male Mabirizi-Kiwanuka has once again sued former presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine this time for obtaining a driving permit by false pretense.
The suit follows Mabirizi’s letter to the chief licensing officer of motor vehicles under the ministry of Works and Transport, seeking certified copies of signed Kyagulanyi’s application for a driving license and subsequent renewals.
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 driving permit, it is indicated that Kyagulanyi was born on February 2, 1982, but Mabirizi is challenging the legality of Kyagulanyi’s age, arguing that his date of birth contradicts that of February 2, 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 Nakawa Magistrate’s court in Kampala and now wants the court to summon Kyagulanyi to answer for his alleged dishonesty.
Kyagulanyi has previously explained the discrepancies in his age, saying it was occasioned by an innocent mistake done by his parents to enable him sit for Primary Leaving Exams (PLE) after he’d skipped primary six. He asserts that he swore an affidavit in March 2000 to correct the said anomaly.
While speaking to journalists at the Nakawa court yesterday 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.
“I have asked the presiding magistrate this time to issue an arrest of warrant against Kyagulanyi. I have proved by affidavit that Kyagulanyi has never respected any criminal summons by court. I have informed court that at Wakiso, criminal summons were issued, he never appeared, at LDC [court] they were issued, he never appeared. So the only way he can appear is through a warrant of arrest,” said Mabirizi.
This is the fifth 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 found information on parliament’s website showing that he was born on 2nd February 1982.
Another case was in March 2000, 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 while aged just two years, since, completed Primary Leaving Examinations 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 this week on Monday. The matter has also been tabled before the East African Court of Justice where Mabirizi is challenging the High court’s decision to allow the DPP to take over his case.
