Court to rule on Dr Oledo suspension from UMA presidency on Thursday

The High court in Kampala has set Thursday this week to make a judicial review on the suspension Dr Samuel Oledo as the president of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA).

On Sunday, during the UMA extraordinary assembly, Oledo was suspended for four years after finding him guilty of engaging in partisan politics in contravention of the UMA constitution. He was replaced by his deputy Dr Edith Nakku-Joloba.

On December 3, Oledo led a group of intern doctors to publicly endorse President Yoweri Museveni for the 2026 presidential elections at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Youth Symposium held at the Kololo ceremonial grounds.

Led by Oledo, the medical interns who were fully dressed in their clinical coats knelt before Museveni showering him with praises and asking him to stand for yet another term, which didn’t go down well with health professionals.

Oledo through his lawyer, Elvis Ssemuyaba from Unicas Advocates contends that the decision to suspend him didn’t follow the right procedures and wants a judicial review of his suspension. 

Justice Musa Ssekaana said he will make his ruling via email on Thursday. Ssemuyaba told journalists outside the court that his client was suspended illegally.

“We were in court in regard to our application for a temporary injunction. We want everything or every business of the Uganda Medical Association for now to stand. Nothing should be done, no decisions should be taken. We’re returning to the status quo as it was when Dr Oledo was still the president. So ideally the decisions that were taken yesterday [Sunday] that were of the effect that the vice president has become the president – all those things have been reversed by the court in the interim until 22nd December when a ruling on the temporary injunction will be made,” said Ssemuyaba.

Ronald Ewalu from Geoffrey Nangumya and Company Advocates who represented UMA said that they will wait for the court decision before charting their next course of action.

“The status quo is that the former vice president who is now the president Dr Nakku Edith is the current president. So we’ll await the decision of the court for the temporary injunction which will be delivered on Thursday and then I will get further guidance from the court here on whether to proceed with the hearing of the miscellaneous cause judicial review or not,” said Ewalu.