good governance, rule of law and social justice enshrined in these
Articles would have been followed.
53. Perhaps more importantly, then, is the jurisdiction of this Court with
regard to a domestic entity’s compliance with the internal laws of
Partner States or the lack thereof. Stated differently, this raises the
question as to whether this Court can inquire into a domestic
entity’s compliance with the internal laws of a Partner State (or the
lack of it). It is now well settled law that this Court’s jurisdiction is
restricted to the interpretation of Treaty provisions. See Article
27(1) of the Treaty,
Attorney General of Kenya vs. The
Independent Medical Legal Unit EACJ Appeal No. 1 of 2011 and
Samuel Mukira Muhochi vs The Attorney General of the Republic of
Uganda EACJ Ref. No. 5 of 2011. Conversely, the proviso to Article
27 does recognize the jurisdiction of organs of the Partner States.
54. That is not to say that this Court cannot intervene where it has been
established before it that a Partner State has acted in breach of its
own internal laws. On the contrary, this Court has held that such a
Partner State would be in contravention of Articles 6(d) and 7(2) of
the Treaty to the extent that it has violated the principles of good
governance and rule of law. Indeed in the case of Samuel Mukira
Muhochi vs The Attorney General of the Republic of Uganda (supra)
this Court did rule that to the extent that section 3(1) of Uganda’s
East African Community Act, 2002 domesticated and adopted the
Treaty into the laws of Uganda, a breach of Treaty provisions would
amount to a breach of the internal laws of Uganda. It was the
Court’s finding that in declaring the Applicant therein a prohibited
immigrant, Uganda had failed to follow its immigration laws and
thus breached Articles 6(d) and 7(2) of the Treaty. However, the
circumstances pertaining to the present Reference are distinctly
different from those in the Samuel Mukira Muhochi case. In that
case the Applicants therein challenged the provisions of the law
REFERENCE No. 10 OF 2013
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