It is a tradition in many countries to launch what is called a legal or law year, when Judges and judicial officers assemble in one place, usually the High Court,to be addressed by a Chief Justice. In Hong Kong it is called the New Legal Year. In Uganda it is called the New Law Year. It charts the path that the Judiciary will take and the new developments expected in the new year.
This year’s New Law Year was on 4th February 2022 was launched, the reason it has been called the Law Year 2022, and was addressed by the Chief Justice, Owiny Dolo, in the presence of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni.
Although the meeting was for Judges and other Judicial Officers, it was attended by many other categories of people, including the leaders of the Uganda Law Society, and prominently by the President of Uganda, Tibuhaburwa Museveni, who addressed it after the speech of the Chief Justice. Before, it was more common to see former Vice President Edward Ssekandi, himself a lawyer, representing the President.
As expected, the speech of the Chief Justice was long but it did not address the Justices and other Judicial Officers but President Museveni. The Chief Justice said they intend to extend judicial services to the lowest level of society and to improve the quality of services.
When it can to the President to speak it became clear that his interests, as far as justice was concerned were different from those of the Judiciary.
Although the President emphasised that there should be no tug of war between the different arms of government, he clearly put constraints to how far justice in Uganda should go. He said the army and the so called freedom fighters should not be attacked (by law?). It was not clear whether he meant that when any soldiers or so-called freedom fighters came in collusion with the law, the law should be not applied to them to the full, or that they were above the law. The Uganda Constitution is clear: No one is above the Law. However, the President preferred full application of the Law of Moses of Eye for an Eye for Killers, and wanted the rapists to be hanged too. He re-echoed his with that wrongdoers are denied bail – meaning that they are guilty until they prove that they are innocent. The reigning laws of Uganda hold that one is innocent until proved guilty (by the process of the law). He created categories under the law, including the people, the army, the freedom fighters and the wealth creaters in the rural areas for protection by law.
Obviously Judges and other Judicial Officers apply the law given to them. They do not legislate the law, although they can recommend what should be made law.
This means that on the whole, the President’s ideas stipulated in his speech were pronounced to the wrong People. They should be for the legislature to consume and make the necessary changes to meet the interests of the President. In othervwords the Executive should make the changes to the law that the President desires and take them to the Parliament to legislate. Then the Judiciary can act on the law given to it to administer. But if the presidential choices in law succeed, what is the future if justice in Uganda? What kind of Justice shall we have? Whose Justice?
Hopefully, the Judges and the other Judicial officers present at the Launch of the New Law Year 2022 did not perceive the President’s unusually short speech intimidatoty and intended to cause feet in the Judiciary. However, since they clapped and gave the President a standing ovation after his speech, we shall wait to see how they respond to the speech in actuality.
For God and My Country.
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