By Mulengera Reporters
Uganda Law Society President Isaac Ssemakadde has vowed to remain defiant; making it clear he will return to Uganda at the time of his own choosing and on his own terms.
Speaking on Kabaka’s CBS Radio, Ssemakadde recently told Yozefu Lukyamuzi, who was interviewing him for the “Nze Nga Bwendaba” segment under the 9am news bulletin, that he doesn’t intend to back down because he isn’t a coward. He said he doesn’t fear Justice Musa Ssekaana at all even after the former LDC lecturer declared him a contemnor and sentenced him to a jail term of two years.
There are plans to subject Ssemakadde to solitary confinement of some sort by locking him up at a specially-prepared prison facility in the remotest parts of Karamoja. The state thinks that such isolation will emotionally break down Ssemakadde and turn him into a more subservient lawyer.
Speaking on CBS, Ssemakadde, who rarely grants media interviews, maintained his innocence and made it clear that he is sure he enjoys spontaneous support and popularity among millions of Ugandans who he predicted will throng Entebbe Airport in large numbers to go wellcome and receive him back from oversees.
He likened the size of crowd he anticipates and intends to pull that day to what to what ex-Kampala Mayor Al-Hajji Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala pulled in 1999 as he defiantly returned home upon completion of his 9 months’ jail term in the United States of America.
Seya got locked up in what many saw as a conspiracy involving the GoU only months after being popularly elected Kampala Mayor. He defeated two Musevenist candidates namely Wasswa Birigwa and Christopher Yiga. His win in 1998 was the first biggest electoral loss and defeat Gen Museveni’s ruling Movement endured for the first at the hands of the opposition since coming to power in 1986.
Upon serving his sentence in the US, where he was accused of being found in possesion of fake dollars aka ebichupuli, Seya was received by millions of Ugandans as a hero at Entebbe International Airport.
He landed at Entebbe Airport in the morning and only reached home in Kisasi past midnight. His convoy, comprising of all key opposition leaders of that time, was delayed on the way because of large crowds who lined up Entebbe Road and cheerfully came to receive their man back home.
The momentum from that crowd is what Ssebaggala harnessed to come up with the Hajji Alagidde slogan which created the momentum Dr. Kizza Besigye rode on going into 2001 campaigns after the EC refused to nominate Seya for want of academic qualifications. Even larger crowds came to receive Seya one more time in 2002 when he returned from what he called further studies at Ruskin College in the UK.
Isaac Ssemakadde believes he can replicate all that and unexpectedly become contemporary Uganda’s Seya because of the persecution he has and is prepared to continue enduring for standing up to what he calls a powerful cabal in the Ugandan justice system. How he intends to replicate that and to what end, only time will tell. He says he will be ready to return back home in a few weeks’ time after accomplishing the ULS official work he is currently undertaking in different countries. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
