By Our Reporters
Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana used the Thursday platform offered by Twebaze Bemanya’s URSB to clarify to the top Judiciary leadership that his war is strictly with Justice Catherine Bamugemereire as an individual judge and not the entire bench. Rukutana delivered his clarification to Deputy Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo who represented the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe at the induction meeting URSB organized to train and deepen judicial officers’ understanding on the Intellectual Property Rights-related disputes that are increasingly becoming rampant as Uganda embraces innovations and inventions as an aspect of legitimate modern economic activity. Dollo arrived at a time Rukutana, who had just arrived, was taking his seat next to URSB boss Bemanya who the Geneva-based WIPO boss praised for being very charismatic, patriotic and a high-commitment bureaucrat. “Eeh the Learned Deputy Attorney General you are here already? Are people like myself safe after you clearly stated the people you respect? What are we going to do to overcome the trouble we are seemingly going to be in this morning?” Dollo teasingly asked in his trade mark jocular style. An evidently astonished Rukutana instantly answered “No My Lord I was very clear. My disrespect is in relation to only that one person [clearly referring to Justice Catherine Bamugemereire with whom he clashed last week].” There was laugher by several other judges who had arrived earlier than their boss Owiny Dollo. As if determined to clear his name and show good faith, Rukutana later sought to mend fences with judges after the day’s director of ceremony Provia Nangobi asked Bemanya to call him to deliver his message as guest of honor. As the day’s major announcer, Nangobi had introduced Rukutana as the day’s guest of honor. “I apologize for the protocol mistakes because there is no way I can be the guest of honor at a function where the Deputy Chief Justice. He is my boss and he is way above where I stand as Deputy Attorney General. He is like number 7 in the hierarchy of the whole country and my rank is somewhere below his,” an unusually humble Rukutana said attracting laughter. He said in light of the last week fracas at the Land Commission of Inquiry, he wouldn’t tolerate any protocol arrangement that can escalate misunderstandings between him and the bench. He then carried on with his speech in which he saluted Bemanya for his reforms that have seen URSB become a model of excellence for the entire African continent as was attested to by WIPO’s Thomas Dillon who represented his boss in Geneva. Renowned for his sense of humor, Dollo later reciprocated Rukutana’s courteous gesture towards the bench. “These titles and whether I’m which number in the hierarchy of the country shouldn’t stand in our way to work together as members of the legal fraternity because that is one thing we shall die and be buried with. No one can ever take that away from us,” he said before disclosing things to do with his historical friendship with Rukutana. “I respect the Deputy Attorney General and he too has assured me he equally respects us as the bench. We were classmates at Makerere Law School for four years and went on to be cabinet colleagues in the same government for years. I have told him this is why those little things of who respects who shouldn’t create a wedge between us and this quarreling of who respects who should stop.”
