KAMPALA – In a ruling that has intensified political drama, the High Court’s Civil Division at Twed Towers has dismissed a legal challenge against the nomination of Zahara Luyirika for the Makindye West parliamentary seat.
Presiding over the case, Justice Simon Peter Kinobe threw out a Judicial Review application filed by three voters from Makindye West, including Allan Ssewanyana, a member of the National Unity Platform (NUP) who himself sought the party’s flag. The applicants had challenged the unusual circumstances that led Ms. Luyirika, who initially applied for the Kampala Woman MP position, to instead secure the NUP flag for Makindye West.
The court’s decision, however, was overshadowed by a revelation that Luyirika had already been officially nominated by the Electoral Commission for the constituency a full two hours before Justice Kinobe delivered his judgment.
According to sources, the judge expressed strong dissatisfaction with this sequence of events. During the proceedings, he demanded an explanation from the applicants’ lawyers as to why they did not act promptly to prevent the nomination if they were aware of the impending legal action. The lawyers’ attempts to clarify were reportedly met with skepticism from the bench.
The core of the dismissed application was to compel Zahara Luyirika to be nominated for the Makindye West MP seat only through the proper party channels, effectively challenging her legitimacy as the NUP flag bearer. Reports suggest that Honourable Luyirika leveraged her strong contacts within the Electoral Commission to ensure her nomination was processed by 10:00 am on the day of the ruling, effectively outmaneuvering her political adversaries.
With this court victory and her nomination already secured, Zahara Luyirika’s path to contest for the Makindye West MP seat in the 2026 elections appears clear, though the controversy surrounding her candidacy is likely to persist on the campaign trail.
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