The High Court has upheld the legality of a law that bars political parties from receiving public funding unless they belong to the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD), dealing a significant setback to the National Unity Platform (NUP) in its bid to restore state financing.
Justice Collins Acellam ruled that neither the Electoral Commission nor the High Court could disregard or suspend an Act of Parliament, holding that NUP’s complaint was with the law itself rather than its implementation.
“Upon a proper analysis, the gravamen of the Applicant’s grievance is directed not against the legality of the Respondents’ implementation of the law but against the consequences flowing from Parliament’s decision to amend the statutory conditions governing political party funding. That is not a matter remediable through judicial review. Judicial review safeguards legality in the exercise of public power; it does not authorize courts to suspend, rewrite or neutralize the operation of legislation validly enacted by Parliament,” the ruling reads in part.
Public funding was introduced under the Political Parties and Organisations Act to support parties represented in Parliament and reduce dependence on private financing.
NUP, the largest opposition party in Parliament, had received government funding until the law was amended in 2025 to make IPOD membership a condition for accessing the money.
The ruling emanates from an application by Uganda’s largest opposition party for judicial review filed by NUP seeking declarations that the directive of the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Norbert Mao, to the Electoral Commission stopping it from extending money to NUP was unlawful, illegal, irrational and procedurally improper.
The party also implored the court to compel the continued release of statutory funding until the enactment of regulations for the joining of the National Consultative Council.
In May 2025, Parliament amended the Political Parties and Organizations Act, 2025, which was also assented to by the President in June 2025.
Among other reforms, the amendment introduced a statutory requirement that government funding and other public resources shall only be provided to a political party represented in Parliament where that political party is a member of the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD and participates in the activities of that organization.
The Amendment Act further recognized IPOD as one of the organs of the National Consultative Forum and empowered the Minister to prescribe, by statutory instrument, on matters relating to its governance, composition and procedures. But in its application for judicial review, NUP contended that notwithstanding the amendment, the Electoral Commission acted unlawfully in excluding it from government funding before the requisite statutory instrument contemplated by the Amendment Act had been made.
It further alleged that the directive was issued without consultation, violated the rules of natural justice, frustrated its legitimate expectation of continued statutory funding, and amounted to irrational and discriminatory administrative action.
However, in an affidavit sworn in by Dr Lawrence Sserwambala, the Executive Secretary of IPOD, the government said that NUP decided to stay out of IPOD despite knowing the consequence of doing so.
Sserwambala said that NUP expressly communicated its dissatisfaction with the amendment and publicly declared that it would not join IPOD notwithstanding the resultant loss of government funding. In his ruling, Justice Acellam said that the language in which the law was written, that government funding was contingent upon membership in IPOD, was clear.
“Section 14 of the Political Parties and Organizations Amendment Act provides in unequivocal language that Government shall only provide public funding and other public resources to political parties represented in parliament that are members of the Inter-party Organization for Dialogue and participate in its activities. Parliament deliberately employed mandatory language, leaving no discretion to the implementing authorities regarding eligibility for funding. The substantive condition for entitlement therefore derives directly from the Act itself and not from any subsequent administrative directive,” the judge ruled.
He added that the Court was unable to discern anywhere within the Act an express or implied intention that Parliament intended the substantive restriction on government funding to remain inoperative until subsidiary legislation had been promulgated.
“Such an interpretation would amount to reading into the statute words which Parliament deliberately omitted. Courts are not at liberty to legislate under the guise of interpretation. Their duty is to give effect to the intent manifested in the statutory text. Indeed, where Parliament intends the commencement or operation of substantive provisions to await the making of subsidiary legislation, it ordinarily says so in unambiguous terms. No such provision appears in the present enactment. It therefore follows that the legal obligation restricting Government funding became operative upon the commencement of the Amendment Act itself and did not await the promulgation of the statutory instrument,” the judge ruled.
The ruling comes days after it became public that IPOD had agreed to allow NUP and the Alliance for National Transformation to join its membership. In recent weeks, there was an exchange of letters between NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya and Dr Lawrence Sserwambala about the details of the ascendancy.
IPOD had asked NUP to present its President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu to sign the Memorandum of Understanding at an upcoming IPOD summit. The summit is composed of the chairperson and president of political parties.
However, Rubongoya wrote back asking IPOD to allow Dr Lina Zedriga Waru, the acting party president, to sign on behalf of the NUP president, as Kyagulanyi continues to stay in the United States, where he ran to after the 2026 general election. Since the suspension of funding last year, NUP has been struggling to carry out party programs, including paying its staff at the secretariat-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
