Uganda’s legal sector tense over worrying developments

Legal circles in Uganda have been roiled by no fewer than three troubling developments in the last week. Over the weekend, the secretary of the Uganda Law Society purported to expel the organisation’s newly-elected president, Isaac Ssemakadde, and his deputy from the council, citing questions of ‘decorum’. This prompted the remaining members in turn to expel the secretary and a second member of the council who backed him. Then there is the troubling matter of a judge of the Supreme Court, Esther Kisaakye, who has ‘gone into exile’, saying she fears for her life. This follows what appears to have been a witch-hunt directed at her ever since, against the will of her colleagues on the country’s highest court, she read her minority judgment in a high-level political challenge. The third major issue is the abduction and arrest of prominent opposition politician Kizza Besigya. He was kidnapped from Kenya under disputed circumstances, and is now facing trial by a military court instead of a normal civilian court, and there are fears that the court will be rigged against him. Carmel Rickard unpacks the recent developments in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site.