By Ben Musanje
Exiled Uganda Law Society (ULS) President Isaac Ssemakadde has launched a blistering public attack on senior lawyer Elison Karuhanga, accusing him of abandoning the legal profession’s duty to defend the rule of law by remaining silent over the alleged abduction of former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.
In an open letter titled “Silence of ‘The Lawyer’s Lawyer’ Screams Loud: Open Letter to the Radical New Bar,” Ssemakadde declared that Karuhanga “no longer speaks for this Bar,” arguing that his silence following the events of June 15, 2026, amounted to complicity rather than neutrality.
Ssemakadde’s criticism centres on the reported arrest of Lukwago, a Senior Advocate and former Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) also the leader of the opposition Peoples Front for Freedom (PFF) party, whom he claims was seized from his home in Rubaga division by UPDF commandos in what he described as “state impunity, in broad daylight.”
“The Lawyer’s Lawyer apparently saw nothing, heard nothing, and said nothing. His unforgivable silence screams loud,” Ssemakadde wrote.
The exiled ULS president said the incident marked the collapse of his efforts to engage lawyers perceived to be sympathetic to the government, admitting he had been wrong to seek common ground with Karuhanga.
“I was wrong to associate with Elison Karuhanga,” Ssemakadde said, describing his previous attempts at “bridge-building” as a failed strategy that risked compromising the independence of the legal profession.
Ssemakadde revealed that he and Karuhanga last spoke on Boxing Day 2025 during a 49-minute phone conversation, in which, he claimed, Karuhanga disclosed that he was under pressure to publicly distance himself from the Radical New Bar (RNB) following Executive Order No. 6 of 2025.
According to Ssemakadde, he unsuccessfully urged Karuhanga not to endorse what he described as the doctrine of a “neutral Bar.”
The latest broadside also revisits the ideological split that emerged after Karuhanga argued in a newspaper opinion article that the Uganda Law Society should remain politically neutral.
Ssemakadde rejected that position, insisting that neutrality is impossible “in a militarized state” and accusing lawyers who avoid speaking out against alleged human rights abuses of enabling impunity.
He questioned why Karuhanga had not publicly defended Lukwago or the legal profession after what he described as attacks on lawyers and criticism from the Chief of Defence Forces.
“Selective muteness in the face of tyranny is not neutrality; it is complicity dressed in procedural robes,” he wrote.
Ssemakadde further argued that efforts to build working relationships with figures close to the political establishment had proved futile, saying Uganda’s political environment was defined by “the gun versus the law” rather than dialogue.
He urged members of the Radical New Bar to abandon what he called “illusions of access” to those in power and instead recommit themselves to defending constitutionalism and the rule of law.
The strongly worded letter marks one of Ssemakadde’s most direct personal attacks on Karuhanga and underscores deepening divisions within Uganda’s legal fraternity over the role lawyers should play amid the country’s increasingly polarized political landscape.
Neither Karuhanga nor the Uganda Law Society had publicly responded to the letter at the time of publication.(For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
