On November 25, 2013, Mr Lukwago was controversially impeached by majority of Kampala Capital City Authority councillors over alleged inappropriate conduct.
The move came after Justice Catherine Bamugemereire’s Tribunal instituted by then Kampala Minister Frank Tumwebaze, to probe the mayor’s conduct found him guilty of abuse of office, misconduct and incompetence.
However, in her ruling on March 28, 2014, Justice Mugambe stopped the said officials from declaring the seat of the Lord Mayor vacant pending the disposal of his main case challenging the impeachment.
However, the attorney general and KCCA being dissatisfied with the ruling appealed. Justice Mugambe denied them leave on grounds that it would prejudice the respondent.
Attorney general and KCCA had to go to Court of Appeal arguing that the High court departed from the law on contempt by holding in contempt people who had not received the court order and had reportedly not been accorded a right to fair hearing.
These are; former attorney general Peter Nyombi (deceased), former Electoral Commission chairman Badru Kiggundu, former minister in charge of Kampala Frank Tumwebaze and former KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi Ssemakula.
The Court of Appeal on Friday ordered government to pay Shs500m to Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago in arrears for salaries he missed following this saga.
“I am a very happy man. Yes, the victory has come late but at least it has finally come,” Mr Lukwago said shortly after the unanimous judgment was read out.
During the hearing of this case, Lukwago through his lawyers argued that the application by attorney general was bad in law and amounted to abuse of court process in as far as the persons who were found to be in contempt of court order didn’t show any dissatisfaction with it.
Lukwago also argued that the attorney general abused the interim order issued by the former deputy chief justice Steven Kavuma by locking his office up to the end of that term as lord mayor in 2016.
He also argued that he had been re-elected as lord mayor again in June 2016. It’s against this background that Court of Appeal dismissed the application by attorney general and KCCA and ordered them to pay costs of the suit.
