Chaos broke out at the Hoima High Court on Friday afternoon after supporters of Hoima City Woman MP Asinansi Nyakato and her challenger, Diana Jane Mugenyi, clashed with security personnel during the hearing of an election petition.
The two political rivals are before the court over a petition filed by Mugenyi, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate in the January 15, 2026, parliamentary election. Mugenyi petitioned the High Court seeking to have Nyakato’s election nullified, alleging widespread electoral irregularities, bribery, voter manipulation, ballot stuffing and non-compliance with electoral laws during the election.
Nyakato, of the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), was declared the winner with 17,142 votes against Mugenyi’s 15,197, giving her a margin of 1,945 votes. But Mugenyi claims there were multitudes of irregularities in the conduct and declaration of the election results.
She lists several polling stations where ballot papers were allegedly messed up, declaration of results forms were not signed and others where the forms allegedly did not indicate the number of valid, invalid and rejected votes. She also points out others where her teams reportedly recorded cases of ballot stuffing, and one where the number of votes recorded exceeded the number of voters who participated in the election.
The contested polling stations include St Mary’s Primary School, Sir Tito Winyi, Hoima Boma polling station, Hoima Rotary polling station, Kitara Secondary School Lower, Mparo Gasani polling station and Kasasa Catholic Church polling station. Mugenyi also accuses Nyakato and her agents of bribing voters and voter manipulation that substantially affected the outcome of the election.
The petition hearing began on Thursday morning, but tensions escalated on Friday when hundreds of supporters of the two candidates gathered at the court premises and began shouting at each other.
The situation nearly degenerated into a physical confrontation, prompting anti-riot police and other security personnel to intervene and disperse the supporters from the court premises. Some of the supporters resisted police orders, leading to further commotion at the court gate.
Julius Hakiza, the Albertine Regional Police spokesperson, said police intervened to restore order after the supporters’ disrupted proceedings. He said security would not tolerate acts of hooliganism at the court premises, particularly when the election petition was being heard.
Hakiza also questioned why the two candidates had mobilised hundreds of supporters to the court. He said security would maintain a heavy presence at the court until the proceedings are concluded and that supporters would not be allowed into the premises. He appealed to members of the public to respect the court and allow the proceedings to continue without disruption-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
