The High Court in Mbarara has upheld the election of Kyarikunda Loydah Twinomujuni as Mbarara District Woman Member of Parliament after dismissing a petition challenging her academic qualifications.
In a judgment delivered on October 26, 2026, Justice Tom Chemutai dismissed the petition filed by Margaret Ayebare, ruling that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear a case based on pre-election complaints concerning a candidate’s academic qualifications.
The court also confirmed that Kyarikunda was duly qualified for nomination and validly elected as Woman MP for Mbarara District.
Ayebare, who finished second in the January 15, 2026 parliamentary election with 16,075 votes, had challenged Kyarikunda’s nomination, alleging that she did not possess the requisite academic qualifications to contest for Parliament.
Kyarikunda won the election with 31,456 votes, defeating Ayebare by 15,381 votes. The other candidates, Barugahare Julia Desire and Maurishia Hope, obtained 610 and 367 votes, respectively.
Ayebare argued that Kyarikunda did not meet the minimum academic requirements for election as a Member of Parliament, despite presenting several academic documents to the Electoral Commission during nomination.
However, Justice Chemutai ruled that complaints concerning nomination and academic qualifications should first be lodged with the Electoral Commission before polling. A dissatisfied party can subsequently appeal the commission’s decision to the High Court.
The judge noted that Ayebare had acknowledged during cross-examination that she knew there was a period after nomination during which candidates’ documents could be inspected and complaints raised with the Electoral Commission. She, however, said she was unaware of the alleged gap in Kyarikunda’s academic documents at the time.
The court further observed that Ayebare had received Kyarikunda’s academic documents from the Electoral Commission but did not attach all of them to her petition.
The documents presented by Kyarikunda included a Diploma in Palliative Care from Makerere University, a Diploma in General Nursing from Aga Khan University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health from Monash University in South Africa, and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Roehampton University in the United Kingdom.
The judge found that the qualifications demonstrated that Kyarikunda had attained an academic standard higher than the minimum required for election to Parliament.
“The evidence before the Court clearly demonstrates that the 1st Respondent was over qualified in that she had more than the minimum qualification and in fact she had a Master’s Degree and a Degree Certificate which were higher than the ‘A’ Level standard,” Justice Chemutai ruled.
The court held that an election petition could not be used as a court of first instance to resolve complaints that should have been handled by the Electoral Commission before polling.
Justice Chemutai further observed that if Ayebare intended to challenge the validity of the academic documents, she should have taken the appropriate legal action against the institutions that awarded them.
The petition was consequently dismissed with costs, and Kyarikunda’s election as Mbarara District Woman MP was confirmed.
