Bushenyi High Court has ordered the expungement of the electronic evidence from the evidence list that Phillip Mugumya had submitted for use in his electoral petition.
During scheduling of the election petition on Monday (yesterday) before lady Justice Mary Ikit a preliminary objection on point of law was raised by counsel for the respondents Deogratious Atuhaire and the Electoral Commission in respect of admissibility of electronic evidence material attached to the Petitioner’s Afidavit in support and the Affidavits of the Petitioner’s witnesses.
The material includes audio and visual recordings in Compact Discs (CDs) and printed photographs.
Cohen Amanya Kyampene, Counsel for the 1 Respondent Deogratious Atuhaire objected to the admission of the annexures attached to the Petitioner’s Affidavit in Support, listed as number 57-63 on the Joint Scheduling Memorandum.
Kyampene argued that the Petitioner did not attach a Certificate of Extraction contrary to Section 65(b) of the Evidence Act, Cap. 8, and that the said annexures were only attached to the Affidavits of the witnesses without Certificate of Extraction that since the issue of authenticity of the said annexures is in issue, they cannot be admitted be even as identification documents.
Abel Mandela Nkunda the Counsel for the 2nd Respondent submitted to Court that, in the modern era of Artificial intelligence (AI), electronic materials can be comprised so as such Court should be very cautious in allowing evidence whose authenticity, integrity and storage are being challenged on record.
He further argued that Counsel for the Petitioner failed to demonstrate the proper channel of tendering the said evidence since the Affidavit of Barnabas Turyatunga who purportedly recorded the evidence does not state his knowledge in extracting the audio and visual recordings from the phone to the CDs which the Petitioner now intends to tender in Court, which makes it difficult for the Court to ascertain whether the evidence is tampered with by the person who is said to have extracted it or not.
Philbert Nuwagaba Kansiime, counsel for the Petitioner while relying on the provisions of Sections 65(b) and 67 of the Evidence Act, Cap. 8 submitted that Court should look at the nature of the case and the evidence a party intends to rely on, the parameters for dealing with electronic evidence.
Nuwagaba referred Court to the Affidavits of Turyatunga Barnabas who he stated how he got the videos and the mode of acquiring the videos.
He further told court that Section 7(2) of the Electronic Transactions Act, Cap. 99, which provides for the nature of receipt of such data which includes videos. He argued that it would be premature to expunge this electronic evidence at this stage without determining whether its authenticity has been put in doubt. That these data messages before Court are self-authenticated as they have time stamps and dates when they were recorded which can only be proved through cross-examination of the deponents to the Affidavits concerned.
He prayed in the alternative that the said annexures be admitted for identification purposes and be admitted as identification documents (PID) pending production of the attesting witnesses who will testify as to their authorship and authenticity during cross-examinations.
In her ruling, lady Justice Ikit said that the admissibility of electronic evidence in Uganda is governed by the provisions of the Electronic Transactions Act, Cap. 99 and the Electronic Transactions Regulations SI No. 42 of 2013.
She said that as per the regulations, the evidence needs expertise, competence and experience in safely handling and transmitting electronic evidence of that nature and the reliability of the methods the expert used to handle, copy, transmit and store the video recordings in Compact Discs should have been demonstrated in an Affidavit,which would demonstrate the integrity and authenticity of the annexed pieces of electronic evidence.
She added that the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (A) which has made it easy for evidence of this nature to be altered, compromised and even doctored noting that the said persons who purportedly recorded the audio or video recordings and took the photographs are all Agents of the Petitioner who are capable of doing anything possible for their candidate to win.
She said that under Section 88 of the Civil Procedure Act, Cap.282 English is the official language of Court and all evidence received has to be in language of Court or translated in the language of Court before it is received in evidence, noting that it appears most of the audio and video recordings the Petitioner is seeking to have admitted on record are not in the language of Court (English) and that the attached transcribed or translated copies of the said recordings however, have no Affidavits of persons who are said to have translated them to English.
She said Court finds that the Petitioner failed to discharge the burden of proving the authenticity, integrity and accuracy of the audio and video recordings, and that digital images were safely stored.
She then ordered that the electronic evidence material attached as annexures to the Affidavit of the Petitioners and other deponents be expunged the.
Shortly after the ruling, Atuhaire said that the petitioner has no evidence to continue with the case, and he would propose that he uses alternative resolution mechanism.
After the ruling the case was scheduled for hearing with the cross examination of the petitioner, Mugumya.
In the brief facts the Mugumya told court that he intends to present witnesses, while the respondents will present two witnesses including, the Returning officer Buhweju district and Deogratious Atuhaire the first respondent.
Muhamya petitioned the High Court seeking to overturn the January 2026 Buhweju District LC V Chairperson election results, in which Atuhaire was declared the winner with 22,231 votes against Muhamya’s 19,754.
Muhamya alleges that the election was marred by irregularities, including voter bribery and manipulation of results. He also alleges that electoral officials conspired with agents of Atuhaire to alter figures on official declaration forms-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
