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East Africa Law Society v A.G. of Republic of Uganda and Others (Reference 3 of 2011)

East African Court of Justice · [2013] EACJ 2 · 2013 Reference Struck Off AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Reference to the East African Court of Justice struck off on preliminary objection regarding time bar
Decision
Reference struck off as time-barred

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The Court held that the Reference was time-barred under Article 30(2) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. The Applicant knew or ought to have known of the alleged human rights violations by September 2010, as evidenced by its own pleadings and a press release it co-issued. The Reference filed in May 2011 was therefore outside the two-month limitation period. The Reference was struck off. Each party to bear its own costs.

Outcome

Reference struck off as time-barred

Facts

The East Africa Law Society filed a Reference concerning alleged human rights violations arising from the arrest and rendition of Kenyan nationals to Uganda following terrorist bomb attacks in Kampala on 11 July 2010. The attacks killed 82 people. The suspects were arrested in Kenya and transferred to Uganda where they were charged with terrorism-related offences. The Applicant alleged violations of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. The Respondents raised a preliminary objection that the Reference was time-barred. The Applicant claimed it only learned of the arrests in May 2011, shortly before filing the Reference on 31 May 2011. However, the Applicant's own pleadings stated the violations were widely reported and notorious, and the Applicant had co-issued a press release with the Uganda Law Society and Law Society of Kenya in September 2010 concerning the arrest of an advocate representing the suspects.

Issues

  1. Whether the Reference was moot and should be struck off in view of the Appellate Division's decision in Appeal No. 2 of 2012.
  2. Whether the Reference was time-barred under Article 30(2) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.

Orders

  • Reference struck off.
  • Each party to bear its own costs.

Rules and key headnotes

Limitation Periods — Time Bar under Treaty Provisions — Knowledge of Complainant
Under Article 30(2) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, proceedings must be instituted within two months of the action complained of, or in the absence thereof, of the day it came to the knowledge of the complainant. Where a party's own pleadings and contemporaneous conduct demonstrate knowledge of the complained action at an earlier date, the court will hold the party to that earlier date for purposes of computing the limitation period, regardless of subsequent assertions of later knowledge.
Pleadings — Parties Bound by Their Pleadings
Parties are bound by their pleadings and any evidence led which does not support or is at variance with the averments in the pleadings must be disregarded by the court. Submissions, no matter how eloquent, can never form part of evidence in litigation.
Judicial Review — Time Limits — Continuing Violations
An argument that a cause of action is of a continuing nature and therefore not subject to limitation periods is misconceived where the specific acts complained of occurred at identifiable points in time and the complainant had knowledge of those acts when they occurred.
Precedent — Binding Effect of Appellate Decisions on Lower Courts
A decision of the Appellate Division of the East African Court of Justice is binding on the First Instance Division, particularly where the decision concerns the same facts and parties as the matter before the First Instance Division.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community Article 30(2)

Cases cited (5)

  • Attorney General of Uganda v Omar Awadh and Others (Appeal No. 2 of 2012)
  • Omar Awadh and Others v Attorney General of Uganda (Reference No. 4 of 2011)
  • Mbugua Mureithi Wa Nyambura v Attorney General of Uganda (Reference No. 11 of 2011)
  • Attorney General of Uganda v East Africa Law Society (Application No. 7 of 2012)
  • Jani Properties v Dar-es-Salaam City Council [1966] E.A. 281

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

East Africa Law Society v A.G. of Republic of Uganda and Others (Reference 3 of 2011) [2013] EACJ 2 (4 September 2013)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.