By Aggrey Baba
Just days after walking out of prison on bail, former Ethics and Integrity Minister Dr. Miria Matembe has returned with fresh attacks on President Yoweri Museveni, showing no sign that her recent arrest and the criminal case hanging over her have softened her stance.
Matembe, 73, who was recently granted bail after spending days in detention on charges of promoting sectarianism, has now accused Museveni of personally directing the criminal proceedings against opposition leader Kizza Besigye, arguing that the judiciary is merely implementing presidential orders rather than dispensing justice.
Her latest remarks come after an arrest that sparked widespread condemnation from opposition politicians, lawyers and human rights activists, many of whom described her disappearance before she was produced in court as an abduction.
Matembe had gone missing for several days after security operatives reportedly searched her home. Her family, the Uganda Law Society and several activists demanded that authorities disclose her whereabouts before she was eventually produced before the Luzira Magistrates Court in a visibly frail condition and charged with promoting sectarianism.
Prosecutors accuse her of making remarks during a June TV interview in which she allegedly claimed that taxpayers’ money was being spent on “Banyankole women ministers,” statements the State says were capable of promoting hostility against members of the Banyankole tribe. Charges she denied.
The Grade One Magistrate later released her on non-cash bail after considering her advanced age, health condition and permanent residence, although the court directed her to avoid making statements similar to those forming the basis of the charges. The case returns to court in August as investigations continue.
But if authorities expected the former minister to retreat from public debate, Matembe appears to have done the exact opposite.
“In February, President Museveni told a respected national leader he would remove Kizza Besigye’s lawyers, assign him state lawyers, and have the case concluded, she wrote on her official X account, further adding that from Besigye’s abduction in Kenya and illegal arraignment before a military court to this day, Museveni has controlled every step of a trial in which he is also the complainant.
She went on to accuse High Court Judge Baguma of enforcing presidential directives instead of the Constitution.
“Judge Baguma is enforcing Museveni’s orders, not the Constitution. This is not justice. It is rule by decree dressed up as a court of law.”
Matembe also argued that Uganda’s Coutts of law had become “a national embarrassment,” insisting that forcing Besigye to choose from state-appointed lawyers after, in her words, “the state itself blocked his legal team” undermined the credibility of the proceedings.
She echoed Besigye’s courtroom protest that, the absence of our lawyers was occasioned by the state itself, claiming that the courts were serving political interests rather than constitutional justice.
Once one of President Museveni’s trusted ministers and a key contributor to Uganda’s 1995 Constitution, Matembe has over the years reinvented herself as one of Museveni’s fiercest critics, frequently speaking out on governance, constitutionalism, corruption and human rights. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
