The High Court in Kampala has dismissed an application by the National Unity Platform (NUP) seeking to block the implementation of a directive by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs that excluded the party from receiving statutory political funding for the last quarter.
Delivering his ruling via email on Wednesday, Justice Collins Acellam held that the case had been overtaken by events, noting that the funds had already been disbursed by the Electoral Commission (EC) to political parties that are members of the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD).
The dispute stemmed from an August 25, 2025 directive by Justice Minister Norbert Mao, also the Democratic Party President and IPOD Chairperson, instructing the EC to restrict political funding to IPOD member parties. Consequently, six parties benefited, while NUP was excluded.
The directive followed amendments to the Political Parties and Organizations Act, passed by Parliament in May 2025 and assented to by President Yoweri Museveni on June 15, 2025. The changes made IPOD membership a condition for accessing government funding and other public resources for parties represented in Parliament.
Through its Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP petitioned the court under the Judicature Act and the Civil Procedure Act, seeking an interim order restraining the Attorney General and the EC from enforcing the directive pending the determination of a main suit challenging both the directive and the amendments. Rubongoya argued that denying NUP its quarterly funding would cripple party operations and violate its right to fair administrative treatment.
He maintained that IPOD had not yet been operationalized under the new law, making the directive unlawful. NUP’s lawyers, Pace Advocates and Kiiza & Mugisha Advocates, contended that the 2025 amendment could not be applied retroactively, and that before June 2025, IPOD existed as a private dialogue forum without statutory status. They insisted that NUP’s membership in the National Consultative Forum (NCF), a statutory platform for all political parties, was sufficient for eligibility to funding.
However, Senior State Attorney Johnson Natuhwera, representing the Attorney General, opposed the application, calling it “incompetent and overtaken by events.” He said the minister acted within the law and that the amendment explicitly limited funding to active IPOD members. He added that only the Constitutional Court could suspend a valid Act of Parliament.
Government evidence, through an affidavit by Lawrence K. Sserwambala, Executive Director of IPOD, stated that NUP had repeatedly declined to join IPOD since 2021 despite several invitations, and its exclusion was therefore self-inflicted. Sserwambala emphasized that IPOD remained open to NUP’s participation and that the party had received a copy of the new IPOD Memorandum of Understanding in September 2025.
The Electoral Commission, represented by Hamidu Lugolobi, confirmed that by September 30, 2025, all funds for the July–September quarter had already been released to IPOD member parties: NRM (Shs8.5b), FDC (Shs756m), UPC (Shs277m), DP (Shs227m), and JEEMA and PPP (Shs25m each). NUP insisted that the disbursement was done in bad faith to defeat the purpose of the case, arguing that the EC acted prematurely without a statutory instrument operationalizing the new IPOD structure.
In his ruling, Justice Acellam said that while NUP had a pending substantive suit, the court could not issue an interim order over an act that had already been completed. “It is a well-established principle that courts do not issue futile orders,” he ruled, adding that “an interim order cannot be issued against a statutory disbursement that has already been effected.”
He further held that suspending the minister’s directive would amount to suspending an Act of Parliament — something beyond the jurisdiction of the High Court — and found that NUP had not demonstrated any irreparable harm that could not be remedied by damages. Justice Acellam therefore dismissed the application with costs to the Attorney General and the Electoral Commission, noting that any constitutional issues raised by NUP would be addressed in the pending main suit.
The decision means that NUP will not receive government funding for the July–September 2025 quarter, though its substantive challenge to the legality of the IPOD-based funding framework remains before the High Court.
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