President’s letter to CJ sparks divisive outcry

It has taken a while, but reaction to a letter by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni to the country’s Chief Justice, complaining about a court decision and urging that the CJ should take action in the wake of that decision, became a high-profile matter over the past week. The letter, written in December 2023, dealt with a visit to Museveni by one of the parties to a court case, and castigated the CJ for the decision taken by a member of the judiciary in relation to the case. In her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, Carmel Rickard writes that though there was initially no public reaction from the CJ, the judiciary and other members of the profession, the matter blew up last week in a way that adds to growing concern about the health of judicial independence in Uganda.