By Mulengera Reporters
On Wednesday, Sr Counsel Kiwanuka Kiryowa handed over office to new Attorney General Dr. Sam Mayanja who, by some coincidence, had been his mentor many years ago, as a young idealistic lawyer, at Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA).
During the handover event, Deputy AG Jackson Kafuzi narrated how it had been a very fulfilling experience working under such a workaholic boss full of integrity and who deliberately example, for the preceding five years.
Kafuzi went ahead to credit his January 2026 reelection victory as Kyaka County MP in Kyegegwa district (where he polled 21,474 votes badly bruising three others) to the generous financial support he received from KK, who always wished the best for him.
He said this was the best time to let out the secret, namely that the outgoing AG is the man who singlehandedly funded his reelection. He said he will eternally be grateful to Kiwanuka Kiryowa for being there and financially standing with him when it mattered most.
Each of the top Justice Ministry officials who spoke (viz Norbert Mao, PS Robert Kasande and the Solicitor General Pius Perry Biribonwoha) had a positive personal story to share about the KK they came to know and closely worked with in the preceding five-year period.
Norbert Mao also celebrated KK as a workaholic incorruptible Minister in whom Gen Museveni, the appointing authority, still has a lot of confidence as seen in his redeployment at Defense, which is equally a very important Ministry where he is replacing Speaker Oboth-Oboth.
The different speakers at the event were unanimous in celebrating him for setting such high standards when it came to hard work and demanding for the very best from the roughly 200 lawyers who worked under him.
He demanded that each one of them gives the job their best, and always was at office as early as 7am and left past 10pm. He was a diligent boss who always read all his files and ensured the same was promptly acted upon.
That is how the outgoing AG, who also deliberately prioritized the e-docs solution and automation of work, was able to decongest the AG chambers while decimating backlog files.
He also eliminated corruption tendencies of anyone at the AG chambers or the Justice Ministry extorting money from those claiming and coming for their compensation at the Justice Ministry. This was handled transparently as beneficiaries always had their names published in the newspapers, while being called upon to step forward and claim/receive their compensation the moment it was ready.
Under KK’s leadership, the AG’s chambers decentralized its operations at the regional offices, did all the legal work to seamlessly support RAPEX, implemented 95% of all the Presidential directives, delivered the JLOS Towers (and also fined the contractor for not delivering on time) and effectively defended all Uganda’s local governments and MDAs at the national level in court.
They also rendered legal work to support public infrastructure and the oil sector-related projects. The office also rendered countless legal opinions to government and contributed towards diminishing corruption practices in public procurements.
WHAT KK SAID: In his farewell speech, KK who is moving to defense, informed his successor Mayanja about the slightly more than 4200 cases that he left pending at the AG’s chambers and assured him of the fact that he was inheriting a team of very patriotic young lawyers ready to serve the nation. They are currently 180 state attorneys at the AG chambers against an approved staffing structure of 500. More attorneys are to gradually be recruited as more funding becomes available.
KK also called on Mayanja to always be accessible and supportive of his lawyers so that none of them ever gets thrown under the bus for diligently doing their work. KK also saluted fellow political leaders at the Ministry (namely Mao and Kafuzi); making it clear they always argued and had strategic disagreements on things but the same never escalated into public fights.
MAYANJA’S TURN: Sam Mayanja caused laughter when he said he was happy to once again be based in Kampala to work with fellow learned colleagues as opposed to the lands docket which required him to forcefully confront land grabbers many of whom he crashed. The new AG joked that he won’t be involved in ‘locus visits anymore.’ Locus visits had become synonymous with his work for the five years he served as State Minister for lands. It depicted his insistence to always be in the field as opposed to being an armchair Minister.
He recalled having to contend with some of the rogue-minded RDCs and DPCs who deliberately lied for self-gain and had no basic understanding of the legal things and the derivative rights by Ugandan peasants or bibanja owners to own and live on their land. He said he was glad to once again get into the professional space while promising to avoid unnecessary controversy.
He agreed with Mao’s earlier observation that his job was now going to be much easier because he is going to be dealing with his intellectual equals-fellow lawyers, the learned friends, unlike the non-lawyer RDCs and DPCs who never easily understood his views and strong stand on certain things.
Narrating how he had known KK for decades, Mayanja said he was proud to be replacing such a high performing AG. He narrated how KK used to work with him and Elly Karuhanga in the early 2000s as their KAA law firm was being founded. Mayanja revealed how as a private lawyer he had closely related with former AGs Kiddu Makubuya and Peter Nyombi (whose tenure preceded KK’s) without being part of the AG.
He said he was impressed with the quality of lawyering amongst contemporary lawyers at the AG’s chambers which is why serial litigants no longer have appetite to casually drag to Court without ensuring they have a good case. He described KK as a Nnamwatulira who fearlessly tells off those who offend him to their faces as opposed to speaking behind anyone’s back. Mayanja said he shares that attribute with KK, whose grand father Jolly Joe Kiwanuka was always synonymous with radical and confrontational politics during Uganda’s independence struggle and the immediate years that followed.
He assured the AG lawyers that not much is going to change from the way KK has been leading them, because he too is a workaholic AG who reads widely and always insists on qualitatively getting things done without foot dragging.
He praised KK for setting such a high standard whereby the AG chambers is no longer synonymous with automatic consent whenever the government or any of its agencies gets sued.
He said the AG chambers should always be prepared for a legal fight to defend government interests to the highest apex court as opposed to rushing to give up and go into curious consent agreements, even in instances where their principal client (the government side) has a good case.
Recalling how he for long never got into the mainstream executive branch of the government, even when those (Matia Kasaija, Stephen Kavuma, Elizabeth Musoke, Ambassador Elizabeth Paula Napeyok etc) he initially worked with in the early 1990s, as instructed by then Finance Minister Crispus Kiyonga, to establish the Custodian Board (for which Kasaija became the pioneer executive secretary) kept falling into things, Dr. Mayanja thanked Gen Museveni for finally bringing him into the heart of mainstream government decision-making.
He recalled briefly working at the OPM, immediately after returning from exile, where he served as Eria Kategaya’s PA. Mayanja also reflected on the concerns MPs recently put to him during vetting; demanding that as AG, he makes it a habit to regularly interface with Parliament, unlike under the lands docket where he spent all his time in the field confronting and quarrelling with land grabbers in the countryside.
His co-Minister Norbert Mao promised to deliberately shield the new AG from public and media wrangling, including being the one to face off with the cantankerous MPs during plenary sessions. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
