By Mulengera Reporters
During a Civic Space weekend podcast hosted by civil society Dr. Sarah Bireete, controversial Kampala lawyer and Daily Monitor columnist Gawaya Tegule called on Ugandans to actively and deliberately get involved in the struggle against the NRM government, which he said had crossed the red line, making even citizen justified to use peaceful means to fight them under Article 3 of the Constitution.
Speaking from Washington DC, in the United States where he is currently based, Gawaya Tegule said that it was no longer appropriate for Ugandans to remain indifferent and keep in the comfort of their private spaces while leaving the business of Uganda’s political pacification to public-spirited human rights lawyers like Erias Lukwago, whose tortuous ordeal is the topic that was being discussed on the much-watched podcast.
Tegule said there is nothing the lawyers can do anymore to shield their clients and Ugandans in general against the CDF-like human rights violations because the courts of law and the entire judiciary is long dead.
He said there are still a few good judges who are determined to use their offices to protect human rights of citizens but those have become so hard to come by to the extent that they aren’t more than the number of fingers on one’s hand.
Having declined to enumerate them, fearing to cause them to be misunderstood by colleagues serving in a system that punishes and isolates well-intentioned judicial officers, Tegule turned the heat on the new Chief Justice Dr. Flavian Zeija who he described as unfortunate and the most unqualified person to ever occupy such an apex position.
He disputed the circumstances under which he became CJ, making it clear that a person of that legal pedigree could only ascend the position of Chief Justice in rigged systems like the one that is currently prevalent in Uganda.
Saying he is clearly ‘in Museveni’s pockets,’ Tegule asserted that Zeija isn’t only the most unqualified Ugandan to ever become Chief Justice but he was also earlier on favored to become the Principal Judge and later on Deputy Chief Justice at the time he was the least qualified of all those who expressed interest in the same.
Tegule concluded that there is no way any lawyer, however good and well-intentioned, can ever be expected to deliver any legal remedy for a client or even human rights violation victims from a judiciary headed by such a CJ.
He seemed to agree with NUP lawyer Benjamin Katana who on Saturday castigated the current judiciary leadership for over glorifying the heavy investments in ICTs, automation, judicial officers’ career development, remuneration and physical infrastructural development when in actual sense the actual delivery of justice to the ordinary people, whose interests such courts exist to serve, is being disregarded like never before in the country’s history.
Whereas Katana implored today’s judiciary leaders to emulate CJ Emeritus Wako Wambuzi who respectfully stood up to Idi Amin during the 1970s and always advised against militarization of judiciary work, Tegule implied that Flavian Zeija risks earning his position in history as the worst PJ, DCJ and CJ this country has ever had. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
