Court Martial trials: NRM has its back against the wall

By Ofwono Opondo 

KAMPALA - In the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgement almost a month ago, rendering the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) General Court Martial a mere disciplinary unit within the army that has no jurisdiction to try criminal offences, including those committed by its own army personnel, the Government has been sent panicking.

As it stands, there is danger that mischievous personnel can now go on impunity errands, much the same way the crooks and corrupt in the civil service are playing endless games in the civilian courts to avoid being held to strict accountability, thereby defeating justice. 

The overall net result here with all of us is an inefficient, laid-back, corrupt, unaccountable civil service that cannot deliver the desired public goods in time. 

There had been running controversies of the court’s jurisdiction presiding over criminal cases involving civilians, especially political activists linked to treachery, treason, misprision of treason and gun-related offences, among others, that were challenged in the Constitutional Court and ended up on appeal at the Supreme Court. 

In panic, and knee-jerk reaction, last week, the NRM Parliamentary Caucus convened to try and hammer out consensus on legislation amendments to the UPDF Act, 2005 to recalibrate the court’s jurisdiction, but from the grapevine, critics, including legal professionals, opposition groups and the so-called democracy activists — however dubious — are spoiling for a hard fight. 

Although with a dominant majority, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), with timid legs and stammering tongues, is destined to find hard times on the Parliament floor to persuasively sell the desired changes. 

By its own public conducts, that have become overboard, not well presented, carelessly spoken for, or sometimes rushed through, NRM has increasingly lent itself to accusations that it does not act in good faith, but rather self-serving, leading to the gradual loss of trust in a number of its pursuits, however genuine or noble. 

When NRM ushered in security, peace and stability, democracy, constitutionalism, rule of law, respect for human rights, regular elections and broad freedoms, including speech and vibrant debates, many of its cadres and government workers went asleep and are now reaping the bitter fruits from its own badly-nourished gardens. 

NRM and its myriad of policies are now constantly on the backfoot, reactionary and even overboard violent. 

NRM lost its way in the legal woods when it appointed liberals and reactionary legal professionals like Abu Mayanja, Mayanja Nkangi, George Kanyeihamba, Kiddu Makubuya, Freddie Ruhindi and Byaruhanga, were no revolutionaries in any sense of the word, let alone even being progressive legal minds as attorneys general. 

Ofwono Opondo 

With that assembly at the top, NRM should not have expected revolutionary legal reforms or reconstruction. 

At the head of the bench, we have had Justices Allen, Wako Wambuzi of the 1970s, Benjamin Odoki, Bart Magunda Katurebe and now Alfonse Owiny-Dollo. 

Imagine in the Constituent Assembly you had Kanyeihamba, Joseph Mulenga, John Kawanga and Sam Kutesa from the old colonial order, as the lead legal minds in the committees to frame the legal issues, with James Wambogo Wapakhabulo at the steering wheel. 

The legal profession, in a neo-colonial setting, from teaching, training and practice, is a reactionary and counter-revolutionary institution feeding off the ignorance of society and no wonder, it has an apparently popular dictum, “ignorance of the law is no defence”, well-knowing it has not taught law to the citizens. 

It now has young lawyers, led by Uganda Law Society president Issac Ssemakadde and his team of ’bang the table’ — out of disappointment and frustration — in a reactionary posture, to shake the legal profession and Judiciary to act better. 

Unfortunately, a colonial wigged-bench, enjoying job tenure, is likely to just sneer at the demands to be progressive, let alone revolutionary. 

So, as we look towards the debate in Parliament, the NRM caucus must put its best foot forward to salvage an already-shacky ground.