Isaac Ssemakadde Punches Holes in Museveni’s Defence of Trial of Civilians in Military Courts

President Museveni: Your early morning defence of the repugnant practice of trying civilians in military tribunals is a blatant assault on the rule of law. It also jeopardizes the achievement of the objectives of the Jumuiya treaty, whose 25th anniversary you celebrated last month in Arusha.

With great respect, your position disregards at least two judgments of the Ugandan Constitutional Court and an excruciatingly delayed constitutional appeal in the Supreme Court. Articles 99 and 128 of the 1995 Constitution require you to use the Presidential pulpit to promote respect for court orders and processes, especially those that conflict with NRM policy, ideology, or laws.

Using the Presidential pulpit to treat court orders and processes with contempt will only exacerbate our current rule of law crisis, rendering the NRM’s aspirations of justice, peace and security mere chimeras.

The cardinal importance of the rule of law was reiterated by the East African Court of Justice in Appeal 6 of 2014 Henry Kyarimpa vs Attorney General of Uganda, quoting a famous passage by American jurist Louis Brandeis:

“Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

To declare that, in the administration of the criminal law, the end justifies the means — to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal — would bring terrible retribution.”

Your justifications — citing “clogged courts” and the need for “speed” – are transparent excuses to circumvent due process and undermine the integrity of Uganda’s judiciary. Recourse to a referendum is no defence for an unconstitutional act: See article 92 of the Constitution.

Twenty years ago, the courts nullified the Referendum Act through which you had sought to entrench the movement system. They will swiftly do the same to your attempts to validate this repugnant militarism. It is clear you have once again been misadvised by your incompetent Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka Nsumikambi Mugambe.

Kindly take this as the statutory advice and assistance to your Government from the national bar association, in terms of Section 3(e) of the Uganda Law Society Act, Cap. 305.

Isaac Ssemakadde is the President of the Uganda Law Society.

Museveni’s defence of trial of civilians in military courts is Here while reactions of Ugandans on referendum on the issue of court martials is There.

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