By Mulengera Reporters
On the evening of 18th June 2013, Justice Bart Katureebe received a phone call from the President. Gen YK Museveni, perhaps frightened by his popularity among many stakeholders who preferred him to become the next Chief Justice (he was a mere Supreme Court judge having joined the bench in 2005), demanded that he drives to State House to meet him on 20th June which was two days away.
On that very day (18th June), Katureebe had appeared before the Justice James Ogoola-led Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for interviews for the position of CJ. He had been nominated overwhelmingly by stakeholders as the most suitable successor for Benjamin Odoki whose contract or tenure had come to an end on grounds of age.
Other fellow Justices whose names had been nominated after JSC called for proposals included Justice Esther Kisakye, Jotham Tumwesigye and then PJ Yerokam Bamwine. Tumwesigye stayed away from the 18th June interviews before JSC for which Kisakye was Deputy Chairperson with Katureebe being the member representing the judges. He had been elected to this role during a meeting at Imperial Royale Hotel.
Back to the State House meeting. Katureebe turned up to meet the veteran leader from Rwakitura who had never disclosed to him why they were meeting.
Having received him warmly, Gen Museveni started by telling Katureebe why it was his view he was the best for the job of next CJ for Uganda. That he had an impeccable record having done such a good job as AG. The second reason was that, with Odoki becoming ineligible for retention, Katureebe was the most senior Justice at the Supreme Court. “However, I have decided that Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki should continue for another two years,” Museveni made out his case to a very bewildered Bart Katureebe who was aged 63 years at that time (as of 2013).
We would like to speculate that Gen Museveni, who clearly intends to rule for life, wasn’t comfortable having the independent-minded Bart Katureebe serve as CJ for 7 years. Delaying his ascendance (after JSC had rated him the best in conformity with the public opinion) by another two years meant he would be 65 by the time he becomes CJ so that he doesn’t do 7 years before clocking 70 which is the mandatory retirement age.
It’s also true that Odoki was Gen Museveni’s OB at Dar es Salaam from where they created a very strong bond. He certainly felt obliged to be there for his OB who hadn’t amassed that much wealth as of 2013 implying he was destined to retire to poverty and destitution.
Having attentively listened to the President, Katureebe (perhaps feeling unwanted) begged to be permitted to give his legal opinion as a lawyer. He told Museveni that: “Your Excellency the Constitution doesn’t allow you to do what you are proposing to do.” Museveni immediately responded that he was firm it was legally possible to maintain Odoki as CJ for another two years because then Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi (a former AG and powerful NRM Secretary General as of that time) had assured him there was a way out within the law.
Katureebe, whose assertiveness as a lawyer Museveni had earlier on referred to as he hanged AG Peter Nyombi for ill-advising him on the Basajjabalaba compensation, responded: “Now that I’m here, let me give you my own opinion about the whole thing.” Katureebe told Museveni his opinion wasn’t because his name had been ranked the best by the JSC prompting Museveni to say it was okay. “I will be happy to hear and get your contrary opinion too.”
He assured the President that Odoki’s reappointment would validly be challenged in Court for breaching the Constitution. This fear, Katureebe assured Museveni, was equally shared by the entire JCS membership and the legal fraternity. Legal scholars equally felt so. Katureebe added that having the CJ’s reappointment contested in his own Courts would badly damage Judiciary as an institution. This would diminish the authority of the Odoki in case he was reappointed as CJ.
Museveni agreed with Katureebe on all this but assured him he would only alter and adjust on his position after speaking to Amama Mbabazi again. It was at this point that Katureebe informed H.E that Mbabazi (who actually chaired his wedding meetings in the 1970s) had several times been to his Bugolobi home and discussed the same with him and never agreed with each other at all.
In fact, Mbabazi had tried to influence the views of the JSC through his protégé Peter Nyombi who was sitting there in his capacity as AG. Nyombi had one time cautioned members that it would be dangerous and risky to stand in Odoki’s way because the President and Premier Mbabazi were determined to give him another two years. He didn’t succeed cowing the JSC because James Ogoola (not easily intimidated) shut him up.
During the Katureebe interface, Museveni rang Mbabazi who unexpectedly challenged him for the Presidency during the 2016 general elections. When Mbabazi picked the call, the “President told him that other lawyers had told him that the reappointment of Odoki would offend the Constitution,” Bart Katureebe writes in his newly-published memoirs.
At the end of the phone call, Gen Museveni directed Mbabazi (who didn’t know Katureebe was right there) to put his views in writing. And he had just one day because a lot of time had already been lost and the entire Judiciary was now under Justice Stephen Kavuma who had controversially become Ag Deputy CJ following the death of Constance Byamugisha Kategaya.
As he signaled him it was time to end the meeting and go, Museveni told Katureebe he was going to make more consultations and get back to him later. Katureebe left the meeting convinced that, much as he had excelled at the JSC interviews and was the public favorite, he would never become CJ since Gen Museveni clearly didn’t like him and instead preferred Odoki or anyone else.
Subsequently, his children (who had waited anxiously as he went to State House) organized a birth day party during which Katureebe declined to explain all the details but only told them to forget about him ever becoming a CJ. “From what I have heard from Entebbe, I will not be appointed Chief Justice,” his memoirs record him to have told his children at the birthday party which was held at Thai Restaurant in Kololo.
The day after the birthday party, Katureebe travelled to London for some meetings and coincidentally newspapers in Kampala carried screaming headlines how he was destined to be the next CJ. The media source was the position of the JSC which Gen Museveni and his right hand man Mbabazi were determined to disregard. Indeed the JSC had forwarded Katureebe’s name to the President for consideration and that’s what the media, unaware of the 20th June 2013 meeting, based on to inform their reporting. While in London, Katureebe kept getting phone calls and messages congratulating him yet for him already knew Gen Museveni didn’t want him.
A day after, Peter Nyombi the AG, having been influenced by Mbabazi (who three years later in 2016 was to challenge Museveni’s election in Supreme Court which Katureebe was now heading having finally got the job), wrote to the President asserting there was no legal bar on Odoki getting another two years. Nyombi advised that to deescalate and harmonize things, Gen Museveni should meet the JSC and convince them on his decision to keep Odoki. During that meeting, the JSC bosses defied Museveni and advised Odoki could only be retained to serve as Acting Justice of the Supreme Court along with three others.
Gen Museveni went ahead acting on Peter Nyombi’s characteristically defective legal advice and re-appointed Odoki whose name was sent to Parliament prompting then Western Youth MP Gerald Karuhanga to successfully challenge the same in the Constitutional Court. In the end, an optionless Odoki eased out and went with all the disgrace resulting from the controversy the President’s insistence had created. His exit created a huge vacuum which then Ag DCJ Stephen Kavuma filled up by serving as both acting CJ and DCJ.
Controversially, that Kavuma designation was the work of Museveni’s man Benjamin Odoki who signed the instrument at a time when he had already ceased being CJ. There had been efforts to frustrate the Karuhanga petition but one of the influential judges, hoping to become CJ, lobbied and the Constitutional Court heard it expeditiously.
Then all of a sudden, Katureebe (who had retreated to his work at the Supreme Court where he was the most senior judge) was on 5th March 2015 proclaimed the new Chief Justice of Uganda. It turned out Gen Museveni had become optionless and sent his name to Parliament for the ceremonial vetting and approval.
So, one Saturday, Katureebe had travelled with his wife Bernadette for the alumni reunion event at his former school Muntuyera High in Ntungamo where he got the news from. Fellow OB Yerokam Bamwine, who had been one of the reunion organizers, is the one who broke the news on the microphone during the function sparking off wild celebrations and jubilations.
Renowned for his flawless sense of humor, Bamwine joked that with Katureebe becoming CJ and himself remaining PJ, the OBs of Muntuyera were clearly beginning to win big things in the country. Bamwine, whose info Katureebe vigorously objected to as fake news, had received a text message from a trusted Presidency source in Kampala. Then Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda (who hadn’t arrived at the time of Bamwine pronouncement) was the chief guest at the Muntuyera event and personally confirmed the news by congratulating Katureebe publicly during his speech.
On the following Thursday, Gen Museveni (who never communicated his change of mind to Katureebe) created time and the new CJ was sworn in and inaugurated at 9am inside Entebbe State House. His ascendance to office was received with a lot of euphoria across the country and as he took office, Katureebe worried about how to meet such well demonstrated high public expectations.
He inherited a Judiciary which had many problems and he among other things prioritized case backlog management, enactment of the Judiciary Administration Act, welfare of judicial officers during active work and retirement besides sensitizing both the executive and legislature about the unique challenges facing the Judiciary. He was also very deliberate about the need to have the Supreme Court and that of Appeal begin operating in their own permanent premises as opposed to renting. That’s how the ongoing multi-billion construction project at the High Court headquarters came about. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
