By Mulengera Reporters
Gladys Kamasanyu, the Chief Magistrate for Makidnye-based Standards, Utilities & Wildlife Court, was this Monday morning late for work by about 30 minutes.
Kamasanyu, whose court ordinarily is supposed to begin at between 8.30 and 9am, arrived at about 9.40am.
As she arrived with her bodyguard and driver, walking to her chambers, she saw a large gathering of people (court users) seated in the huge waiting shelter inside her court compound and demanded to know how many of them had matters before her.
Many of them were indeed meant to have business before her. Kamasanyu (who had first gone to the hospital to check on a sick relative) immediately told them she was sorry not to have been able to arrive on time and asked for forgiveness for having kept them waiting. The court users, seemingly disarmed by her humility and flawless Luganda language, cautiously responded with “its okay” and her apology was accepted.
The gathering mainly comprised of relatives whose loved ones and close relatives had been arrested over the weekend by Police over petty offences. Many of them, not expecting a judicial officer to be so humble, were shocked with her gesture.
“That lady is like that and she always takes her work very seriously yet likes making suspects, appearing before her and their sureties, calm. She even addresses her clients in their local language because she wants everyone to feel at home. She rightly realizes that judicial officers are supposed to be servants of the people and not bosses,” one court user explained to a bewildered elderly lady who had come to witness defense lawyers applying for bail for her son who had been arrested over the weekend.
Once in Court, Kamasanyu characteristically livened up the mood by throwing banter and cracking endless jokes while teasing freshly-arrested suspects in the dock and their respective sureties. At some point, she asked a New Vision journalist who had come to stand surely for a friend whether he had sought permission from Vision Group Editor-in-Chief Barbra Kaija to miss the Monday morning editorial meeting.
She joked to another co-surety demanding to know why he wasn’t feeling guilty having to introduce himself to Court as a businessman operating a bar in Kyanja. She casually asked the 29-year-old surety: “But sir don’t you sometimes feel guilty running a bar which sells alcohol which keeps making our people drunk and intoxicated?” This question was asked to him in Luganda.
Apparently, this was meant to make the surety, who was undertaking such a responsibility for the first time, calm and relaxed. He indeed laughed and became relaxed.
On seeing the suspect shivering in the dock, Kamasanyu casually asked him “Nicholas are you okay?” He answered: “No your honor I’m stressed and scared.” She counseled with: “That’s life. We have to live with and manage stressful situations throughout our entire lives. I ask counsel [defense lawyer] to counsel and prepare you better next time.”
Before releasing the accused person on bail, Kamasanyu turned to ask his elderly father why he wasn’t comfortable standing surety for his own son and was instead leaving that big responsibility to be shouldered by the accused person’s friends who are younger men.
“No your honor. He is my son and I’m not ashamed of him except that I was late in court, having had to travel from Tororo by bus in order to be able to be here in your court this morning. In fact, I’m ready to be a co-surety if court requires me to. I have my national ID and I’m only missing the LC1 letter,” the old man explained as Kamasanyu signaled him to resume his seat.
Not done cracking her jokes, Kamasanyu asked the New Vision (as she signaled him to get back his work company ID) whether he had liked the court session and intended to report anything about what he had seen in Court during the Monday morning session.
“What are you going to report in New Vision about this case?” Kamasanyu teasingly asked as the journalist assured her he was here to secure the freedom of his friend, the accused person, and not to report any news since he hadn’t been deployed to do so by his editor back at office.
Because many random Kampalans get intoxicated and onto the wrong side of the law while merry-making during weekends, Mondays are always the busiest days at Kamasanyu’s Court because large number of defense lawyers tend to come around to apply for bail for their clients, some of whom turn out to have been erroneously arrested or merely over petty offences which don’t require one to be remanded.
Police has to work closely with the ODPP to quickly rush them through in order to beat the 48 hour rule which requires suspects to be presented before Court within 48 hours or else the State gets accused of violating their personal liberties as is enshrined in the Constitution.
So, as a public-spirited and customer-centric judicial officer, Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu is always giving priority to such matters that are eligible for quick bail so that no innocent person gets his or her personal liberty unduly deprived.
This is the context in which she paused and humbled herself before Court users and registered her unqualified apology for not being able to make it on time. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
