Kipoi Tonny Nsubuga

Career

Kipoi Tonny is the Member of Parliament under the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the governing political party, and he serves in the committee of defense and Internal affairs, Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE). Kipoi is also referred to by his initials TK and his clan name Kipoi. Kipoi was inaugurated as the MP of Bubulo West on 17 May 2011, after defeating incumbent Bukeni kyabi Fred and Watsusi washeba Sylvester former minister of Works,Transport and communication and 9 others at the NRM primaries. Kipoi is also a founder of the Coalition of Market Venders of Uganda (COMAVU) the body which advocates for the right of the under privileged Traders in Uganda, briefly Kipoi runs a Multi media companies in South Africa, Botswana and Netherland. From May 2006 to 2009, he switched into community based activities back home, where his main objectives was to focus on Health, education, and Orphans in skill developments in order to be self-reliance. Kipoi is the first youngest direct member of parliament to be elected at the age of 32 in Bubulo west Manafwa district. He has faced significant political legal challenges.

Loses seat

Barely a month after swearing in as Bubulo West Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Kipoi has been thrown out of Parliament. The Mbale High Court Presiding judge, Mr Mike Chibita, overturned the result of the February ballot in which Mr Kipoi beat nine other contenders and ordered a by-election.

Mr Ronny Walukhu, Mr Patrick Bukeni, Mr Mwisaka Kaboole and eight hundred others petitioned the High Court to invalidate the election of Mr Kipoi because he did not possess the required A-Level qualification or its equivalent.

The three told the court that the mature age certificate awarded to Mr Kipoi, by Makerere University, does not belong to him since it bears the name Mr Paul Namanda, a student of Kyambogo University. "Though court does not have expertise to interpret handwriting, the features of the handwriting in this case are quite glaring. I therefore find that the petitioners have proved to the satisfaction of this court that Mr Tony Kipoi Nsubuga, did not sit for mature age entry examinations for which he was awarded the certificate of recognition. Makerere University should therefore cancel the certificate," Justice Chibita said.

Justice Chibita told the court that Mr Kipoi could not have been validly nominated and elected.

"His nomination and election is invalid. Therefore Bubulo West Parliamentary seat is now declared vacant. The Electoral Commission will have to organise a by- election and costs be awarded to the three head petitioners," Mr Chibita said.

Shortly after losing the petition, Mr Kipoi told Daily Monitor that he is just a victim of "jealous rivals". "I have the required qualification that is why I was nominated. Those who lost should accept rather than witch-hunt me. I am going to appeal the ruling," Mr Kipoi said.

Final judgement of court of appeal

NRM Member of Parliament for Bubulo West County Constituency in Manafwa District, Tonny Nsubuga Kipoi, who had been ordered out of Parliament on grounds of lack of sound academic qualifications, has retained his seat. This followed a-39-page-judgment in which the Court of Appeal stopped the High Court trial judge’s orders cancelling Kipoi’s certificate from Makerere University. The court also cancelled the High Court trial judge’s orders nullifying Kipoi’s election as MP for Bubulo West County Constituency and the order to conduct fresh by-election. “The trial judge’s order that the appellant’s certificate of recognition as a person who sat and past the Makerere University Mature Age Entry Examinations issued to him by the university be cancelled is hereby set aside. The trial judge’s orders that the Parliamentary elections for Bubulo West Constituency be nullified and a by-election be conducted in the Bubulo West Constituency are hereby, too, set aside,” the court ruled. The court also ordered the petitioners to pay Kipoi the costs of the petition in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal. Justice Steven Kavuma headed the coram. The other members were justices Augustine Sebutulo Nshimye and Remmy Kasule. The court’s registrar, Elias Omar Kisawuzi read the judgment on behalf of the court. Kipoi Tonny and Ronny Waluku Wataka together with others contested in the February 2011 Parliamentary elections for Bubulo West Constituency, which Kipoi won. However, being dissatisfied with the results, 803 voters including Wataka, petitioned the High Court at Mbale arguing that Kipoi was not validly elected. At the end of the trial, the court ruled that Kipoi should vacate his seat in Parliament arguing that his nomination and election was invalid on the ground that at that time he lacked the required academic qualifications. The court also said that the certificate of equivalence issued to him by the National Council of Higher Education, (NCHE) had been based on a certificate of recognition as a person, who had passed the mature age entry examinations that he had not sat. However, the court agreed with Hassan Kamba and Michael Okecha, who represented Kipoi that unless and until Makerere University recalled or cancelled its certificate of recognition, NCHE had no powers to revoke or cancel his certificate of equivalence, which he used to for nomination and election as MP. The court also agreed with the lawyers that the trial judge had no power to cancel the Makerere University Mature Age Entry Examination Certificate issued to Kipoi Tonny They criticized the trial judge arguing that he erroneously evaluated the evidence on record and wrongly concluded that it was not the appellant that sat the mature age entry examinations. “Justice in the instant case called for a balance between expediency and the need to accord due recognition to the value of expert evidence and opinion in a highly contested and important matter concerning competition for political power and the all-important question of academic qualifications of an individual,” the court observed. In further agreement with Kamba and Okecha, the court said that it could uphold the trial judge’s findings that it was not the appellant who sat and passed the Makerere University mature age entry examinations that took place in 2010. The court note further that the trial judge was at fault to allow a witness against the appellant when he was all the time in court when the other witnesses were testifying and; when the appellant wanted to cross-examine him, he was denied the opportunity to do so, on the ground that he was a court’s witness, yet he had given damaging evidence against the appellant.

Early years

Kipoi was born in Bunefule – Bugobero subcounty. His father was a policeman who died when Kipoi was still a young boy, and his mother a domestic worker. As a child, he was constantly moving between Mbale-Nairobi & Kampala in the central region of Buganda kingdom. He has three brothers, Michael, Robert and Joseph