Robert Kyagulanyi walked out on Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) tribunal after exchanging barbs with its chairperson Mariam Wangadya Monday morning.
National Unity Platform (NUP) principal Kyagulanyi said he could no longer believe in the fairness and credibility of the Commission after it sat on his file for five years.
"I filed this case five years ago and it's only being heard for the first time [today], justice delayed is justice denied," said Mr Kyagulanyi, who had only been allowed to speak following an earnest plea by his lawyer George Musisi.
Ms Wangadya could have none of it and threatened to throw him out.
"I am not going to allow you to further with this statement," Wangadya said.
"If this is what you have to say, am not allowing you to say anything further. You have your lawyers. You speak through them if not I'll order you to leave.
But the pop star turned politician defiantly held his ground to speak out his grievances, to which Ms Wangadya responded by ordering him thrown out.
Not to hand his 'victory' to UHRC, Mr Kyagulanyi announced he was withdrawing the case, leaving Ms Wangadya and her Commission in no man's land.
This was during the sitting of UHRC tribunal at the commission offices along Lumumba Avenue in Kampala.
The tribunal sat to hear for the first time a case filed by Mr Kyagulanyi in 2018 when security blocked his concerts and detained his music equipment.
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Chairing the tribunal, Ms Wangadya was hesitant to allow a party who is represented by a lawyer to speak for himself when Mr Musisi asked that Kyagulanyi be allowed to speak.
And when he fired salvo at the Commission that he called alleged incompetent and unfair, Ms Wangadya shot back to attempt to quieten Mr Kyagulanyi, only that she was a word or two too late.
The Opposition leader was unmoved by the orders of the tribunal chair and went ahead with his statement in which he accused the commission of being biased.
"I have withdrawn that case because this commission is not able to hear it fairly," he said in response to Ms Wangadya's decision that he leaves the tribunal.
"We have seen the previous investigations about the missing people and have not yielded to anything so I don't expect them to hear this."
As Mr Kyagulanyi and his team left the chambers, Ms Wangadya would be heard from the background shouting, "case dismissed" before Kyagulanyi responding, "withdrawn not dismissed".
The Uganda Human Rights Commission tribunal is a special court established under the UHRC Act to hear cases of human rights violations filed to the commission against human rights.
Other politicians like Dr Kizza Besigye have been before the same tribunal, with similar tales of delays.
Besigye is still before the tribunal in case filed in 2015 following multiple arrests by security operatives.
Mr Kyagulanyi's decision on Monday is an indictment on UHRC that has increasingly come under criticism for turning a blind eye to gross human rights abuses in the country.
