UIPE Power Struggle Lands in Court, High Court Dismisses Contempt Application in Engineers' Leadership Row
A fierce legal battle over leadership at the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers (UIPE) has taken a significant turn, after the High Court in Kampala dismissed a contempt of court application brought by a group of engineers challenging the conduct of UIPE’s recent leadership transition.
The court case that started earlier last year immediately after the presidential elections of UIPE, a Miscellaneous Application No. 886 of 2024 was filed by five aggrieved engineers led by Eng. Nsiimire Annet, who alleged that UIPE and its new leadership, including President Eng. Bosco Lepi, defied a court issued temporary injunction.
The applicants accused the respondents of willfully violating court orders by proceeding with a Special General Meeting (SGM) and an Annual General Meeting (AGM) in August 2024, which culminated in the swearing-in of the new UIPE leadership.
The applicants sought stern penalties, including fines of Shs100 million per respondent and a civil prison sentence of up to 18 months. They also wanted the meetings nullified and the temporary injunction reinstated.
But in a strongly worded ruling, Justice Emmanuel Baguma dismissed the application, stating that the injunction the applicants relied on had lapsed by operation of law following a court-sanctioned consent settlement between the parties signed on July 22, 2024.
“The applicants’ attempt to shift the basis of their complaint from the expired temporary injunction to the consent settlement, without amending their pleadings, offends Order 6 Rule 7 of the Civil Procedure Rules,” the judge stated.
He noted that while the applicants accused the respondents of failing to implement all terms of the consent decree, such issues were not part of the original application and therefore could not form the basis for a contempt ruling.
In his decision, Justice Baguma emphasized the core principles of contempt law namely, that for contempt to be proven, a valid order must exist, be known to the alleged contemnors, be within their power to comply with, and then be disobeyed. He ruled that none of these elements were satisfied, as the contested order had ceased to exist.
“In the final result, the application fails,” the judge ruled, while notably opting not to award costs in a bid to encourage reconciliation within the engineering fraternity.
The courtroom saga began earlier this year when Eng. Annet, a defeated presidential contender in UIPE’s March 2024 elections, filed Civil Suit No. 151 of 2024 contesting the results.
A temporary injunction halted the AGM and swearing-in ceremony scheduled for April, but a consent agreement later replaced the injunction and outlined a roadmap for investigations into the electoral process.
Despite the truce, tensions resurfaced when UIPE proceeded with the SGM and AGM, leading to the latest court challenge.
Legal analysts say the ruling is a critical reminder of the importance of procedural consistency in litigation and may serve as a cooling off point in what has become a fractious internal power struggle at the country’s top engineering body.
For now, UIPE’s new leadership retains its legitimacy at least in the eyes of the law though the underlying issues around transparency, governance, and constitutional compliance within the institution remain far from settled.
