Senior press secretary to president Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni Don Wanyama has told off US ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown for exhibiting ignorance of the Ugandan judicial system and for murdering English language in her criticism of the remanding of gay rights defender Nicholas Opiyo.
Responding to the remanding of Opiyo until December 28, Brown tweeted her unhappiness of court decision to send the lawyer behind bars but her statement lacked in basic grammar and grasp of how the judicial system works.
“Disappointed to learn that the only decision taken today wrt to the charges against @NickOpiyo was to remand his case to another court and to continue to detain him. #JusticeDelayedIsJusticeDenied,” tweeted Ambassador Brown.
Earlier, the US and European Union (EU), under the Partners for Democracy and Governance Group (PDG), had issued a statement condemning Opiyo.
Ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) officials such as secretary general Justine Kasule Lumumba have hit back at the EU, US and local civil society organisations for seeming to argue that Opiyo would be above the law simply because he of the ‘human rights lawyer’ label.
Wanyama has now advised Brown to first learn the basic and to also respect Uganda’s judicial process, the way Kampala respects the US decisions, some of them ‘warped.’
“Please take time to appreciate*your host country’s systems. There’s nothing like “remand case to another court,” replied Wanyama.
“Importantly, respect our processes. Imagine if all our views on President Trump’s pardon of Stones, Manafort & Kushner counted!”
