KAMPALA.The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) Electoral Commission has disqualified Ms Fiona Nakku from contesting as the party’s flag bearer for the position of National Female Youth Member of Parliament.
This came after the National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) confirmed that she is not fit to vie for the position based on age.
In a letter dated August 18, the NRM EC notified Ms Nakku that her nomination had been cancelled following a petition challenging her eligibility.
“Following the said advice, the NRM Electoral Commission is legally obligated to de-nominate you… as you do not qualify to be nominated at the national level based on your age,” the Commission’s Chairperson, Dr Tanga Odoi, wrote.
The decision means Ms Nakku will not appear on the ballot in the forthcoming NRM primaries for the National Female Youth MP seat.
The disqualification of Nakku followed a petition filed by aggrieved youths through their lawyer, Mr Aaron Amanya of ABNO Advocates, accusing Ms Nakku of altering her age to qualify for the youth race.
According to Mr Amanya, the law requires that youth candidates be aged between 18 and 30 years. However, Ms Nakku was born on December 20, 1994, meaning she turned 31 last year and is therefore ineligible.
“The law is very clear. A youth must be between 18 and 30 years. Nakku Fiona was born in 1994, which makes her ineligible,” Mr Amanya told this publication .
The petitioners submitted copies of her original National ID, passport, and Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) academic documents, all showing 1994 as her year of birth. They also noted that she contested in the 2021 Busia Woman MP race using the same documents.
However, Ms Nakku recently presented a statutory declaration claiming her birthdate was July 20, 1997, an inconsistency the petitioners described as fraudulent.
“Our clients believe that this change of age is not only false but deliberately fraudulent,” Mr Amanya said.
NIRA investigation
The petitioners wrote to NIRA to verify her age. In a letter dated July 29, NIRA confirmed that Ms Nakku’s request to alter her date of birth had been investigated and cancelled, affirming her official birthdate as December 20, 1994.
The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) also verified that she sat her Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in 2006 and her Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) in 2010 at the age of 16.
“If she was born in 1997 as she now claims, she would have been only nine years old when she sat PLE and 13 years when she sat UCE, which is impossible,” Mr Amanya argued.
The youths requested that the tribunal withdraw Ms Nakku’s nomination and compensate them for the inconvenience caused. The NRM EC confirmed receipt of the petition on July 30.
When contacted earlier, NRM EC commissioner in charge of Buganda Region Mr James William Kinobe said the Commission usually relies entirely on data from NIRA and would act since there is now evidence confirming the discrepancies .
“As NRM, we base entirely on NIRA’s database. If what a candidate presents is different from what NIRA has , we definitely have to disqualify him/her ,” Mr Kinobe explained.