Diana Ahumuza (M) with other big people
By Our Reporters
Makerere law lecturers have weighed in on the debate to determine the extent to which outgoing Uganda Law Society (ULS) President Francis Gimara fulfilled his manifesto promises and generally lived up to his electors’ expectations. It all started with a Tuesday Facebook post by outspoken don Robert Kirunda who posted a number of questions seeking answers from fellow lawyers. This is what he posted on Tuesday, eliciting varied responses from fellow lawyers: “So, earlier this year, I resigned my position on ULS Election Appeals Committee (thank God!). The purpose was so I can actively engaged on ULS elections, and be partisan – if needs be. I have decided that over the next several days, I will invite my lawyer friends here to a discussion on the leadership and future of the Law Society. As we are set to have elections later this month, perhaps we should make informed decisions. Today we start with a very simple question: the outgoing leadership sold us a vision of the ULS We Want. Do we now have the ULS We Want? Do we even know the ULS We Want? If the answer the first question is in the negative and the answer to the second question is in the affirmative, are we any closer to the said ULS We Want? On the other hand, if the answer to both these questions is in the negative, to what extent should these questions influence the next election? Put another way: what is your rating of the outgoing leadership and to what extent should that rating influence how we vote later in the month?”
THE RESPONDES
The post attracted responses from many lawyers including two of his distinguished colleagues from the Makerere Law School namely Diana Ahumuza (teaches law of contract, law of banking) and the famous Kabumba Busingye (teaches Constitutional Law). Whereas Ahumuza says Gimara’s leadership has been exceptional on members’ affairs, she is concerned about mistreatment of staff at the ULS Secretariat. “I’ve heard many complaints by the employees of the Society. That the Council/leadership had many short comings as an employer.” Before giving what she called her honest view, Ahumuza first sought assurances from Kirunda that she wouldn’t be character-assassinated and demonized for her opinion. Kirunda doesn’t differ from Ahumuza that much as it seems to be his view that whereas a lot has been done, much more could have been achieved under the Gimara leadership.
Kabumba Busingye (aka BK) comes in with his post on the same subject sharply disagreeing with Kirunda’s reservations on Gimara’s performance. He posts: “To be honest, I think the outgoing executive performed very well especially in terms of tapping into the professional interests of various members (across generations) and reaching out to the wider community including students.” Kirunda, who assured this news website in a phone interview he is currently not interested in Gimara’s job, immediately fired back posting as follows: “Busingye Kabumba thank you for your assessment. Follow up question; in real terms, how do we quantify this progress into tangible results if at all?” Kabumba Busingye instantly responds, almost furiously thus: “Robert Kirunda I’m not sure that all progress is always amenable to quantification into tangible results.” Kirunda didn’t respond to BK from that point on but instead responded to others. Then came Julius Galisonga, another city lawyer, who says he lost interest in the Law Society activities because of uninspiring leadership there. “For me I haven’t figured the answers out yet but what I know is that my relationship with ULS is limited to CLE [Continuing Legal Education]. Reason; it’s a platform of very few wiseacres who want to load it over others devoid of ethics, pompous, arrogant, judgmental and self-entitled,” says Galisonga.
KIRUNDA SPEAKS OUT:
We rang Kirunda who explained something about his Facebook post. He says he didn’t post because he wants Gimara’s job himself. He says it’s because he wants to ignite debate that will increase lawyers’ interest to vie for the positions and to also turn up and vote. “I have been called by many people already addressing me as Law Society President but I’m not interested. At least not for now. I will give you an example; Francis Gimara the first time he became Law Society President. He came with the intention to vie for ULS vice presidency but ended up taking the presidency because there were no candidates. The only person who was vying for presidency was very undesirable and Gimara decided to go for the Presidency because there was no competition. Why? Lawyers have no interest in the ULS activities and I’m saying we can do something about this. That is why I’m posting those things. To get the lawyers interested as we build momentum to the voting day. Every lawyer has a duty to turn up and vote and this is the enthusiasm I’m trying to create towards the upcoming ULS elections,” explained Kirunda renowned for his outspokenness. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
