Lawyers for the Liberal Party (PL) have requested High Court to order expelled former party officials to pay Frw30m as damages for what they called  ‘a media campaign’ propagated by the latter against the party.

The sacked officials who include two former MPs Elie Ngirabakunzi and Isaie Murashi are the plaintiffs in the case, in which they accuse the party of illegally sacking them.

"These people engineered a media campaign that greatly affected the reputation of the party.

A lot of things were reported in the press and to us, none other that these people gave information to those media houses,” Jean Bosco Kazungu, the lead counsel for PL, said.

However, Kazungu said that the money is not enough to repair the damage that was caused but would only serve as an example to other members who indulge themselves in such activities.

Kazungu had an assortment of newspaper cuttings of stories published in different local newspapers which he later presented to the presiding judge, Johnston Busingye.

Lawyers to the plaintiffs however denied their clients had used the media to propagate the alleged campaign against the party.

"There is an unquestionable freedom of press in our country and journalists have a right to make investigations and publish whatever they find, how can this be attributed to our clients?” Mbaga Tuzinde Mbonyimbuga, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, queried.

Ngirabakunzi and his group petitioned High Court citing illegal sacking from the party. They argue that the decision to sack them was not taken by the competent authority (the party executive committee), and were not given a chance to explain their case before being shown the exit.

"The bona fide authority in this case was the party congress.

But the decision was taken by a committee chaired by a person (Protais Mitali, the president) who is involved in the dispute,” Mbaga said.

Mitali is also the Minister of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Co-operatives.

Floribert Karuranga, the other lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that the fact that some of the sacked members held big positions in the party it necessitated the congress, which had voted them, to take the decision to expel them.

Ngirabakunzi was the party treasurer, while Dr Laurien Nyabyenda and Emmanuel Uwimana were presidents for Southern Province and first-vice president for Western Province respectively.

However Kazungu argued that it was uncalled for to summon a national congress which had met hardly a month before to mediate the dispute when the law provides an alternative.

By sacking the five officials, according to PL lawyers, the party invoked article 68 of the rules and regulations governing the party, which deals with anyone who defames the party and senior officials from the party.

 "They verbally attacked senior party officials including the president and they apologized for this in a letter they wrote to the party…why are they turning to deny this?” Serge Kayirate, another lawyer for PL, said
Meanwhile, plaintiffs asked for damages worth Frw35m--- ten million each for the former MPs and five million to each of the three others  members.

Wrangles within the party started in August after the party elections that saw Mitali become president replacing senate vice-president Prosper Higiro.

Ngirabakunzi and others sacked from the party allege the polls were rigged.

Subsequently, they wrote to the Minister of Local Government Protais Musoni contesting the results and calling for re-elections.

Later, they filed an injunction in the High Court seeking court order blocking the replacement of Ngirabakunzi and Murashi from the Parliament before the disputes within the party are solved.

They however lost the case and it now before Supreme Court on appeal basis and their replacements; Francois Udahemuka and Charles Kamanda, were sworn in last week as MPs in the Chamber of Deputies.

Busingye, who is also the president of the High Court, set the ruling for November 1 when the verdict will be pronounced.

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