By Sania Babirye
2021 presidential aspirant and former security minister Rtd.Lt.General Henry Tumukunde has lost a case in which he was seeking court to stop the Uganda police and Criminal Intelligence department boss Grace Akullo from violating his rights to liberty, free speech and association by allegedly threatening to arrest him due to lack of evidence.
Justice Musa Sekana has dismissed his application on grounds that Tumukunde failed to produce material evidence to prove that the defendants violated his personal liberties.
Justice Sekana also noted that the police has a right to investigate and detect crime and that if it ruled in Tumukunde's favor, he will be interfering with police's constitutional mandate to detect crime , preserve law and order and to protect lives and property.
The judge further noted that no case was made by Tumukunde against police and Grace Akullo to warrant court to issue an injunction since in his affidavit, Tumukunde only states that the said summons did not disclose any type of charge slapped against him.
He explained that it's not clear whether Tumukunde was summoned to appear either as a suspect or a witness and thar the court can only extend its protective hand to a citizen who is being wronged or deprived of his property without following the law but rather not to issue orders that perpetuate a threatened crime which has been detected by police.
Although Tumukunde had asked court to award him 70 million shillings in compensation, the court has instead ordered him to pay costs to police and Akullo.
On the 27th of August, Tumukunde petitioned the high court seeking orders to stop the government from ever threatening to arrest him on grounds that the said arrests are in violation of his constitutional right to liberty and freedom of expression.
This is after Tumukunde snapped summons by the CID to appear at the headquarters in Kibuli on the 18th of August over allegations that he met veteran soldiers and held other gatherings in violation of the Standard operation procedures.
Through his lawyer Anthony Wameeli, Tumukunde wanted court to issue a permanent order restraining the state from ever issuing him such arrest threats because bing a presidential aspirant, he is mandated by law to consult voters and gather signature
3/4 of signatures from at least 100 districts of Uganda in order to stand for presidency which will be interfered with by the said arrests .
He claimed that he did not break any law by meeting up with the army veterans because he duly picked nomination forms as a presidential aspirant and notified the Electoral commission of his intentions to consult and traverse the entire country looking for the required signatures.
Tumumunde noted that this was just to frustrate and suffocate his political ambitions by state because politicians from the ruling NRM party have on several occasions involved veterans in political activities and none of them has ever been summoned at CID.