Court proceedings in the Kawempe North by-election petition took an unexpected and dramatic turn on Tuesday, as Faridah Nambi — the NRM candidate and runner-up in the March 13 election — was forced to pause her testimony and retrieve a calculator to justify her claims of massive voter disenfranchisement.
Appearing before Justice Bernard Namanya at the Civil Division of the High Court, Nambi faced a tough cross-examination from lawyers representing Elias Nalukoola Luyimbazi of the National Unity Platform (NUP), who won the election with 17,939 votes to Nambi’s 9,058.
At the heart of Nambi’s petition is her assertion that 16,640 voters were disenfranchised due to the exclusion of results from 14 polling stations — a number she claimed could have significantly altered the outcome of the vote.
Under sharp questioning from lead counsel Muhammad Mbabazi, Nambi was unable to clearly explain how she arrived at the figure. At one point, Justice Namanya granted a ten-minute adjournment to allow her to obtain a calculator and consult with her legal team, led by Ahmed Mukasa Kalule.
When she returned, calculator in hand, Nambi cited figures from documents prepared by her lawyers and listed the polling stations she believed were excluded. She claimed that, had the votes from these stations been included, the 8,881-vote gap between her and Nalukoola could have been closed.
However, Nalukoola’s legal team remained unconvinced. Mbabazi argued that even with votes from the omitted stations, Nambi could not overcome the wide margin. He described her claims as speculative and said they failed to meet the legal threshold required to overturn an election.
Further cross-examination from lawyers Remmy Bagyenda and Samuel Muyizzi Mulindwa pressed Nambi on whether she had concrete evidence that the alleged 16,640 voters had actually turned up — and more importantly, whether they would have voted for her.
Nambi admitted she could not confirm that those voters were present on election day, nor could she verify their support for her candidacy. She also acknowledged she was not personally present at any of the polling stations she claimed were affected.
Pressed on allegations of electoral irregularities and violence, Nambi stated that her polling agents reported disturbances but conceded she did not witness them herself. She further accused Nalukoola of voter bribery and campaigning on polling day — allegations that remain to be addressed in court.
Meanwhile, Nalukoola’s legal team asked the court to strike out affidavits from several of Nambi’s witnesses, arguing that their absence for cross-examination rendered their statements inadmissible hearsay. Justice Namanya reserved his ruling on that matter.
