The National Unity Platform (NUP) has suffered a major legal and financial setback after the High Court in Kampala dismissed its application seeking to stop the government from excluding it from receiving political party funding for the July–September 2025 quarter.
Delivering his ruling via email on October 29, 2025, Justice Collins Acellam said NUP’s application had been “overtaken by events,” since the Electoral Commission (EC) had already released the funds to parties that are members of the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) in line with the amended Political Parties and Organisations Act.
“This court cannot restrain the implementation of a lawfully enacted statute through an interim order. To do so would amount to suspending an Act of Parliament, which is beyond the jurisdiction of this court sitting as a civil court,” Justice Acellam ruled.
The decision means that NUP will miss out on another round of funding, further straining its already stretched finances ahead of the 2026 general elections.
According to the EC, UGX 11 billion has been distributed among NRM, FDC, UPC, DP, JEEMA, and PPP, the only parties that signed IPOD membership contracts under the new law.
IPOD President Dr. Lawrence Sserwambala confirmed that NUP will also not receive the next disbursement, expected in November, since it remains outside IPOD membership.
“Even the next batch of funds will go to the parties under IPOD. NUP will not receive any share until it joins the platform,” Dr. Sserwambala said.
NUP’s share, estimated at UGX 1.4 billion, has already been reallocated to other IPOD members.
The row stems from an August 25, 2025 directive by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, instructing the EC to exclude NUP from receiving statutory funding. The order followed amendments passed by Parliament in May 2025, restricting funding to political parties that are part of IPOD and actively engaged in its dialogue programmes.
NUP, through its Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya, petitioned court, arguing that the directive was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
“The enforcement of this directive cripples our operations as a national party and causes irreparable harm,” Rubongoya said in his affidavit.
The party’s legal team, Pace Advocates and Kiiza and Mugisha Advocates, argued that the government acted unlawfully since IPOD only became a statutory body after the President assented to the amendment in June 2025, meaning NUP could not have been forced to join earlier.
“The applicant has never received any lawful invitation to join IPOD under the new legal framework,” NUP’s lawyers stated.
However, Senior State Attorney Johnson Natuhwera, representing the Attorney General, dismissed NUP’s application as “frivolous and overtaken by events.”
“The minister’s directive was lawful and based on the amended Act. The EC already disbursed the funds in accordance with the new law,” he told court.
In his ruling, Justice Acellam agreed with the Attorney General, saying NUP failed to prove that it would suffer irreparable harm or that there was any status quo to preserve.
“The purpose of an interim injunction is to preserve the status quo, not to reverse a completed event,” he wrote, citing Theodore Ssekikubo & Others vs Attorney General.
The judge concluded that the balance of convenience favoured the respondents, who were implementing a valid law, and dismissed the case with costs.
The court defeat has worsened NUP’s financial strain as it gears up for the 2026 elections. Sources say the party has been unable to register about 100 parliamentary candidates due to lack of funds to pay nomination fees of UGX 3 million each.
Rubongoya said NUP will appeal the ruling and continue pursuing its main case challenging the legality of the 2025 amendment and the minister’s directive.
“We still believe the distribution of IPOD funds is unfair and politically motivated. We call on well-wishers to stand with us,” he said.
Records show that over the past four years, NUP has received UGX 22 billion in state funding from the Electoral Commission.