{{The East African Court of Justice has blocked the removal of Margaret Zziwa as Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly until May 29 when it will deliver a final verdict.}}
The First Instance Division of EACJ on Monday issued as interim order that EALA maintains the status quo and restrain from discussing the matter of Zziwa’s removal pending its ruling later this month.
The order was made after hearing of applications filed by Zziwa and EALA MP Mukasa Mbidde against the respondents who are the EAC Secretary General and Attorney General of Uganda.
The applicants are seeking an interim injunction from court against the EAC Secretary General and the Uganda directing EALA to refrain from referring the motions for resolution to remove the speaker.
The applicants also seek an order against the EALA Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges to refrain from conducting any investigation pending the hearing and determination of the main case.
The court ordered that the applications be consolidated and be heard together because they were related matters.
The Applicants represented by lawyers Mbidde and Jet Mwebaze submitted that the respondents failed to seek an advisory opinion from the regional court on the procedure of removing the Speaker.
Also, EALA continues to operate without proper rules in place which infringes on the treaty establishing the EAC on good governance including adherence to the principles of democracy and rule of law.
Mbidde further submitted that EALA should be stopped from proceeding with the impeachment process using informal rules of procedure and that there are no grounds for the censure of the Speaker.
He argued that although there must be investigations conducted to reach the clear decision, there are no rules to guide the EALA Legal, Rules and Privilege Committee in carrying out the investigations.
The applicants also said that if the interim order is not granted, they would suffer irreparable damages which would not be compensated.
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