During a plenary session of Parliament, Butambala Woman MP Aisha Kabanda Nalule rose on the question of national importance and demanded that the Prime Minister explains why Justice Faridah Bukirwa, who the Uganda Law Society praised in its recent petition to the President for being so hardworking to the extent of completing 1600 cases in just under 500 days, continues to be kept out of office.
Aisha Kabanda reminded the plenary that Bukirwa had her suitability for the job duly assessed by the Judicial Service Commission, which went on to recommend her to the President, who appointed her and even sent her name to Parliament for approval. She wondered why anyone would stand in the way of such a qualified Judicial officer even after the appointments committee of Parliament approved her under the Chairpersonship of the Speaker.
Anita Among, the Speaker, was in the chair and corroborated Aisha Kabanda’s narrative and made it clear that Bukirwa had met all the requirements except that she was being kept out of office because of politics and not for reasons related to any form of professional misconduct on her part as a Judicial officer.
Among explained that she has credible information to the effect that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which the President had tasked to inquire into all the anti-Bukirwa complaints, has since cleared her having failed to find any merit in the claims. Among unequivocally stated that these complaints were of a political nature and had nothing to do with performance of Judicial duties or failure thereof.
During the same plenary session, it went on the record of Parliament that Bukirwa was among the 16 Judicial officers the President first appointed in the year 2022 to serve in the capacity of Acting Judges, a process which was fully processed, ratified and validated by both the JSC and Parliament as is required under the Constitution.
That after two years, the same 16 including Bukirwa went through another similar process which culminated into them getting appointed to take on their respective roles as substantive High Court Judges.
All this was relayed to Parliament by Aisha Kabanda who the Speaker allowed ample time to make her submission to which the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja responded as the rest of the MPs attentively listened. Nabbanja promised to contact the Chief Justice, Judicial Service Commission and the President and subsequently report back to the plenary.
Anita Among said there is a lot she knows about Faridah Bukirwa’s case including the fact that she has since been exonerated after the JSC established that there was no merit in the complaints that had ben raised against her.
One complaint related to a senior powerful Minister from Busoga sub region who wanted to use Court to punish a manager at one of the Minister’s Hotels, which Justice Bukirwa declined (true to her character and determination to always dispense justice without fear or favor, as it ought to be).
The Minister wanted the estranged manager to be denied bail and unfairly locked up which Bukirwa declined to be used to enact into place. The Minister, whose complaint has since been thrown out by the JSC, also wanted to abusively use the Court system to confiscate the manager’s personal car and sell it off ostensibly to recover the money whose unexplained disappearance the impugned manager is supposed to have caused.
Bukirwa declined allowing her Court to be used to orchestrate such injustice. Ad yet all this angered the powerful senior Minister who revenged by leveraging political connections and reported to the President demanding for action. The President, prudent as always, refused to use his office to reprimand a Judicial officer for having done her work. He politely advised the Minister to officially complain to the JSC.
Justice Minister Norbert Mao recently narrated all this persecution the female Judge has endured for merely doing her work and advised such aggrieved Ministers and NRM cadres to use the appeal mechanism embedded within the Judiciary as opposed to rushing to the President burdening him with things which aren’t supposed to be referred to him.
Mao said that such Ministers are a problem to rule of law in Uganda. He also pronounced himself on the Mufti Shaban Mubajje case, which Bukirwa presided over and rendered her ruling, and asserted that this equally had to be resolved through appeal as opposed to UMSC delegations going to the President to complain about a Court ruling they didn’t like as opposed to challenging the decision in Court of Appeal.
Aisha Kabanda said that the entire Parliament had a duty to stand up and defend Bukirwa while demanding for her reinstatement. Kabanda also made reference to the fact that Bukirwa is a lady and the only Muslim among the 16 new Judges under that recruitment cohort.
She said that this naturally raises a red flag and should be a matter of interest to all people of good conscience regardless of sex, gender or religion. She demanded that Nabbanja gives a time frame within which the Bukirwa matter is going to be resolved. She also demanded that the Speaker gives Nabbanja a deadline within which to report back to Parliament.
Nabbanja promised to compare notes with the President, Chief Justice, the JSC and urgently report back to Parliament on some way forward on the same. There has been unanimity among Ugandans regardless of religion, gender, age and social status that Justice Bukirwa was unfairly treated because she merely went through all the procedures as prescribed under the Constitution and proceeded to diligently do her work as a Judicial officer upon getting the job.
Recently, the Uganda Law Society members operating under the Jinja and Iganga High Court Circuits petitioned the President demanding justice for Bukirwa.
Earlier on, Court assessors and ordinary Ugandans or Court users had converged in Jinja for the Court open day and registered their solidarity with Justice Bukirwa while condemning those who set out to marginalise and persecute her merely because they didn’t like some of her judgments and decisions as a Judicial officer.
This solidarity was exhibited during the Court baraza that was attended by the Principal Judge, who ideally is supposed to be Bukirwa’s immediate supervisor, among others.
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