Humanist

Justice Monica Mugenyi, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, Justice Elizabeth Musoke, and Justice Night Percy Tuhaise, you were all woman, yesterday, 31^st January 2025.

With excellence, you delivered the long awaited and overdue ruling of the Supreme Court of Uganda on whether Military Courts are legally bestowed with a mandate to hold Court for the purpose of conducting trials of civilians.  

Your ruling heralded and summarized by the Uganda Law Society in its post: “Supreme Court ruling on civilian trials in military courts: a victory for constitutionalism and the rule of law.”

I did not watch nor listen to the proceedings live, but from what I have read, listened to and watched in postmortem media stories and clips, it is praise all around about how you presented and conducted yourselves.

From your physical appearance, to your demeanor while you each delivered your ruling, you exuded confidence and duly elicited respect.

You epitomized what it means by “commanding your space.” You left no doubt that you belong and you are justices of the Supreme Court.  

The intelligent content of your ruling, a reflection of your excellent legal minds, you delivered in an articulate and clear manner. You left no room for doubt about what your ruling is; and what premise you based it on.

Certainly, in the context of Uganda, you distinguished yourselves from some justices who have come before you, whose delivery of some Supreme Court rulings prior, left a lot to be desired.

Thank you for being good role models of powerful ‘black African’ Ugandan women to look up to.

Particularly so, in the prevailing era of so-called “anti-gender and ant-equality movements,” that have tendencies and the propensity for regressive advocacy on gender issues.

Some may think my assertion an exaggeration, but contextualized in our history, it is not.

“Women in Uganda have had a complex relationship with the state … After the British declared a protectorate over Uganda in 1894, missionaries worked closely with the new colonial government to educate women for domesticity. Daughters of the elite learned to become helpmates to their future husbands, who, in turn, were the functionaries of indirect rule. The colonial period also saw the advent of the club movement, which trained women to be good wives and mothers.” Alicia C. Decker in “Women in Uganda” in the online publication “African History”

I am not saying women should not be good wives and good mothers.

But God forbid that gains we have made freeing ourselves from women shrinking and repressive definitions of what it means to be a good woman, a good wife and or a good mother are lost.

I digress. Back to the point of celebrating you.

I was happy to find a Wikipedia page for each of you. I do expect and hope that Wikipedia will update your pages to reflect your contribution towards delivering the history making Supreme Court ruling.

You are recorded in history for promoting the rule of law and constitutionalism. You sent a message, loud and clear, that not even men in uniform and with guns, so to speak, are above the law.

We need more female personalities such as you, especially ‘black African’ women, featured prominently online.

We need profiles and stories of more women like you to take up space online and to counter misogyny directed against ‘black African’ women.

Sometimes, moreover, and subconsciously, it is ‘black African’ men who have internalized racist narratives that are propagated through the colonizer’s lens, who are the purveyors of such racist and misogynistic narratives online.

That reminds me. I know those blonde legal wigs you wore are part of the attire of Supreme Court justices, but seriously, time is now, to ditch them.

It is time for our nation to follow the example of other former colonies and be rid of the colonial relic that is the requirement for our justices and others in legal authority to wear blonde legal wigs.

Read more of why so in “’Learned Ugandans’ let us get rid of the outsider’s symbol of authority.”

For the moment, once more, thank you for your service to our nation.

It is now written in history. The landmark ruling of the Supreme Court was delivered by a women dominated quorum of six justices – four women and two men.

You have broken through and have smashed multiple gender glass ceilings.

I would like to believe that images, motion and sound clips of you, as you delivered the ruling, are already countering degradation of ‘black African’ women online.

You have provided us with precedent, including premise and evidence to locate our advocacy to “speak out on online narratives normalizing degradation of ‘black African’ women.”

Profiled image @ Daily Monitor