Uganda Law Society Leadership
Against all odds, the leadership of the Radical New Bar of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) have remained steadfast to the spirit of the law. They are standing up and standing tall for the “judicial property of the bar.”
Senior Counsel Isaac Ssemakadde President Uganda Law Society and Counsel Asiimwe Anthony, Vice President Uganda Law Society.
Theirs is the first ULS administration to insist that members representing ULS on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) must be elected by ULS members.
Kudos to the now persecuted and exiled ULS President, Isaac Ssemakadde, and his entire Council.
The current Vice President of ULS, Asiimwe Anthony, is in a league of his own. He is a looker with dreamy eyes and is soft spoken, but firm in support of his fellow Radical New Bar leaders and their vision 2060.
The implications for the greater good that the Radical New Bar led ULS is bequeathing us all are noteworthy.
If I had a million, I would give it to the Radical New Bar and the majority of ULS members who voted in the Radical New Bar leadership. Without them, business would have gone on as usual, as it was with previous ULS administrations.
Judicial Service Commission Debate
A glimpse of such business as usual made it into the debate.
JSC Candidate Advocate Amolo Shamim, during the ULS debate
Advocate Amolo Shamim eviscerated her fellow candidates, one by one, pointing out their inaction or transgressions.
She likened them to the characteristics of a water melon (green on the outside and red on the inside). What you see is not what you get, kind of warning.
Amolo’s submission particularly hit a nerve with the former ULS President, Pheona Nabasa Wall.
If the moderator had not stopped the debate on time, there is every indication that the two learned female lawyers, Amolo and Wall, were going to degenerate into a cat fight.
“Chain Breaker,” Legal Advocate Paul Mukiibi
Legal Advocate Paul Mukiibi is among those whom I categorize as doctrinally perpendicular. And who is effectively fighting for restoration of the rule of law in Uganda, via there being competent judicial officers.
If I was to make the decision based on the first debate of candidates for election as ULS representatives to the JSC, to be voted to represent ULS on the JSC, I would choose Mukiibi.
I acknowledge, as well, that during the JSC debate, Advocate Ellison Karuhanga did not hold back. His body language matched his words.
“We need to defeat people like Frank Kanduho. My brother is unable to stand up for the judicial property of the Bar. My brother thinks there is nothing we can do about invoking a provision of the Constitution that gives power to an agency (Judicial Service Commission). He has no solution, at least none given here. He has no opinion, at least none given here. I will address and root out issues of constitutional desservice, historical blunder, ideological backwardness, and the conceptual confusion of applying only half the solution when you have double the problem. Colleagues, if you are looking for resilience, this (him) is where it is. Vote the lawyers’ lawyer. Olimujjawa omusajja asinga nze (where will you find a man better than I).” Legal Advocate Ellison Karuhanga during the first debate of candidates vying to be elected representatives of ULS on JSC.
He named names, and solarized – aloikin ojok cut, ya yanise mune kabisa, okwe! He seems among those overtly putting themselves out there to fight for constitutionalism and normalization back to the rule of law in Uganda.
National Unity Platform (NUP)
Have you been following the NUP-IPOD (Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue) saga?
Less than two weeks have passed and NUP has caved. Reportedly, it has now decided to join IPOD, which it previously it would not do so, in principle.
And the backlash from its followers and praise singers has come fast and furious.
NUP, the party with the largest number of ‘opposition members of parliament (MPs)’ in the 11th Parliament, did not formally engage and resist the new IPOD rules while the rules were being debated on the floor of the house.
Apparently, none of the NUP MPs, not even the Leader of the Opposition, appended their signature in support of the relevant parliamentary minority report.
But, right after the law was amended, NUP joined in with gallery purposeless lamentation; and, thereafter, filed a case in Court.
This seems what Advocate Karuhanga described as people who “think there is nothing we can do about invoking a provision of the Constitution that gives power to an agency?”
In this case, Parliament, specifically the power of the Minority Report and the Hansard, for posterity.
Does this not fit in what Karuhanga described as “conceptual confusion of applying only half the solution when you have double the problem?”
As in, what was the wisdom of NUP MPs not using a multi-faceted approach:
- Vehemently resist in Parliament.
- Use the record of resistance in Parliament as supporting evidence in Court.
- In the interim join IPOD on the onset with guns blazing and with demands.
If NUP is asking for my vote, how can it convince me it is going to do better when its MPs current, to use the words of Karuhanga, seem operating in “historical blunder, ideological backwardness and constitutional de-service?”
How can I then trust that NUP is capable of taking on the role of “Chain Breaker,” as Mukiibi is branding himself in his campaign to be elected a ULS representative on the JSC?”
National Resistance Movement and Other Parties
The ruling party, National Resistance Movement (NRM) is a known entity, why should I focus my energies on that?
I have already blogged about it for decades.
For the other parties with a presidential candidate in the race, there are some I will not even bother to fact-check and that says a lot, in itself.
NUP has the largest number of MPs current, ideally it would have followed logic that the other opposition parties would not focus on reversing that gain.
Instead, they are all competing tooth and nail to further splinter the opposition; and which will likely strengthen the incumbent.
Similarly, NUP, in some constituencies where other opposition political parties have strong candidates for MP, NUP has also fielded a candidate.
Now, don’t you think the incumbent will increase its numbers instead?
I am not saying they shouldn’t, this is politics. But I long for a less skewed parliament.
The Prisoner
Retired Colonel Dr. Kiiza Besigye
The strong man not in the race and on the ballot, is revered as though he is in the race.
His letters from prison to the judge, begs us to reflect on if we did not loose the opportunity. Where will we ever get another fiery opposition leader of substance such as he, some are asking.
Let’s Chat…