The republic of uganda in the supreme court of uganda at kampala

Therefore, I do not think that the authorities referred to us by Mr. Walubiri are applicable, because our case here is confined to and governed by S.58(6)(c) of the Act.

In the instant case the evidence to prove this type of bribery was given by Gariyo Willington in paragraph 1, 2 and 3 of his affidavit:

“(1) I Gariyo Willington of C/o Ms Balikuddembe & Co. Advocates, Kampala do hereby solemnly state on oath as follows:

(2) That l am registered voter and during the above mentioned election, I was in charge of overseeing the operations of the polling agents for candidate Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye in Rubare sub-county.

(3) At around 11:00 a.m. I visited Kyanyanzire cell and saw Mwesigwa Rukutana loading people on a motor vehicle Rg. No. UAA 006A Nissan pick-up and he was giving shs. 5,000/= to every person who was boarding and instructing them to vote candidate Museveni Yoweri Kaguta.”

I shall deal with this, because each case has its peculiar facts.

In this case, there was no evidence that Mwesigwa Rukutana was 1St respondent’s agent. Mwesigwa Rukutana himself, has denied in his affidavit as being agent for respondent. In paragraph 4 of his affidavit he stated:

“That it is not true as alleged in paragraph 3 that was at Kyanzanzira village loading people on pick-up Reg. No. UAA 006A and giving Shs. 5,000/= to every person who boarded. On that day I never stepped in the said village nor did I load any body on the alleged or any vehicle at all or give any money to anybody.”


Then Bob Kabonero stated in his affidavit in paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 as follows:

(2) That I am a registered voter at Omungyenyi Parish polling station in Ntungamo.

(3) That I have read and understood the affidavit of Gariyo dated 2/3/2001.


(4) That the allegation made against me in paragraph 4 of the said affidavit are completely false.


(5) That on 12/3/200 1 I voted at Omungyanyi Parish polling station shortly after 7:00 am.


(7) That it is also untrue that I had four armed (UPDF soldiers escorting me


(8) That after casting my vote, I spent the rest of the day driving around Bushenyi and other parts of Ntungamo District in the Company of Hon. Mwesigwa Rukutana.


(9) That I did not see Hon. Mwesigwa Rukutana offering Shs. 5,000/= or any sum of money to voters as alleged in paragraph 3 of Gariyo ‘s affidavit.

Further more, Hon. Mwesigwa Rukutana’s denial was corroborated by Asingwire Richard’s evidence who stated he never saw him (Mwesigwa Rukutana) give out money to voters.

Similar charges were made against Hon. Mike Mukula of Soroti Municipality that he was seen dishing out money to voters. He denied the charges. His denial was corroborated by affidavits of Ekanya Beatrice, Elietu Paul and Angolo Martha, the Presiding Officers of Kichinjaji polling stations “B” “C” “D” respectively.

There were similar allegations of bribe giving to voters in Ayivu county with directives that the voters go and vote for candidate Museveni. However, the presiding officer denied ever seeing bribes being given to voters.

What is clear in all these allegations is that there was no evidence that the so- called bribe-givers were agents of the l respondent. There was no evidence that the 1’ respondent had knowledge and had consented or approved that money be given to voters to induce them to vote for him.

In these circumstances, I find that the petitioner failed to prove the charges against the 1^ST respondent to the satisfaction of the court. I therefore find no merit in this complaint.

Later, Mugizi Frank saw one Ali Mutebi, a campaign agent for 1^st respondent coming to give him Shs. 5,000/= so that he could return and sign Declaration Results Form. He stated he rejected the offer and refused to go back and sign the forms. The affidavit of Ssali Mukago was that on 9^th March 2001 Daudi Kahurutuka an agent of 1^st respondent went to see him and requested him to demand any amount of money he wanted from Museveni Task Force, so that he could leave them alone to steal votes. Daudi Kahurutuka denied that allegation in his affidavit sworn in support of 1^st respondent.

I must state that both complaints do not seem to constitute an election offence either under Sections 65 or 58(6)(c) of the Presidential Elections Act. However, if it is true that some one could promise to pay any amount of money if he was let free to steal votes, then the moral fibre of our society is on decadence. I think that, all that I can say is, that it is high time our religious leaders came out to instill a spirit of moral behaviour in our society.

Another complaint concerning bribery was in the affidavit of Omaha Ram of Tororo District who stated in paragraphs 4, 5and 6 of his affidavit: