By Steven Enatu
SOROTI CITY
Ugandan lawyer based in Soroti city, Joshua Okello has dragged the United States Government and its embattled Senator Bob Menendez to court accusing the defendants of defaming Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among.
In May this year the US imposed sanctions against Speaker Anita Among, Minister Lugoloobi and former ministers Goretti Kitutu and Agnes Nandutu, along with spouses.
Parliament Speaker Anita Among was sanctioned “due to involvement in significant corruption tied to her leadership” of Uganda’s national assembly, the U.S. State Department said.
In his application to high civil division Kampala court on the 23rd July 2024, Okello argues that the Speaker was sanctioned for performing her roles by passing into law the Anti-Homosexuality Act in the interest of Ugandans as later revealed by the US secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The sanction barred the Speaker from traveling to the United States of America.
In his miscellaneous cause no 738 of 2024 suit, Okello wants court to declare that the former US senator Menendez Bob who pushed for sanctions against the Rt. Hon Speaker Among is or was corrupt and his mischievous allegations had no shred of evidence.
The former head of the Senate foreign relations committee was found guilty on 16 counts of taking bribes to aid the Qatari and Egyptian governments, and faces a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced on 29th October, 2024.
Bob Menendez is to resign from the US Senate after being convicted of accepting bribes including gold bars, cash, home mortgage payments, compensation for a ‘low- or-no-show job’ to help foreign governments.
Senator Bob Menendez announced that he will resign in August. The decision on Tuesday, 23rd July, 2024 came as Menendez’s fellow Democrats piled pressure on him to step down or face becoming the first politician to be expelled from the Senate since 1862.
“I will be resigning from my office as the United States Senator from New Jersey, effective on the close of business on Aug. 20, 2024,” Menendez’s letter said.
Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will appoint a replacement for Menendez, who has represented New Jersey in the Senate since 2006 and served as chairman of the influential Foreign Relations Committee before giving up that post after being charged last year.
It’s upon this background that Okello seeks court to declare that Speaker Among and Parliament has never been accused of corruption in any court of law, contrary to the implications in the statement by the USA.
He asserts that foreign countries like the United States should respect the sovereignty of other states.
The Judicial activist wants an order of mandamus prohibiting foreign partners, especially the United States of America from interfering into Uganda’s local politics and a ward of general damages and cost of the application.
On 7th May 2024, Okello filed a case at the High Court Civil Division in Kampala against the UK government over its sanctions imposed on Speaker Among.
He later withdrew the case from the civil division high court Kampala and filed it at the European court of Human rights in Strasbourg city, France pending hearing.
Okello argues that his judicial activism is based on public interest in the matter of the human rights enforcement act 2019.
