Court dismisses lawyer Mabirizi’s case against Mao for being a 'common nuisance'

Mao was charged along with Democratic Party (DP) Secretary General Gerald Siranda.

Mabirizi dragged the two DP strongmen to court on charges of being a common nuisance, disobedience of statutory duty, and conspiracy to defraud.

This was in light of Mao getting a ministerial appointment as President General of the Democratic Party after the expiry of his term. And Siranda being supported by the government as DP candidate for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) elections.

These plum roles for duo came on the heels of President Yoweri Museveni and Mao signing a cooperation agreement at State House Entebbe on July 22nd, 2022 as leaders of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) Party and Democratic Party respectively.

The agreement provided for the placements of both in said roles and this prompted Mabirizi to institute a private suit against the duo.

On Friday, however, court dismissed Mabirizi’s allegations that Mao’s ministerial appointment “caused common nuisance contrary to Article 160 (1) of the Penal Code Act.”

Before the ruling, Mabirizi questioned Amabilis’ impartiality in handling his application to institute private criminal proceedings against Mao and asked her to clarify her relationship with the DP leader.

He prayed that she recuses herself from handling the matter. However, this recusal was denied.

Mao and Siranda were not present in court when Mabirizi’s application was dismissed. The two DP stalwarts were however represented by Mukasa Mbidde, Eric Ssengendo, and Justine Ssemuyaba who asked the court to dismiss the application, saying it was aimed at merely annoying Mao and Siranda who did not commit any offenses when they signed the NRM-DP agreement.