Francis Gimara to handover after two years as ULS president

Feb 28, 2018

The elections for a new president will take place on April 8, 2018 at the Speke Resort Munyonyo. The prospective presidents will start campaigning on April 7.

PIC: Francis Gimara, during his two-year tenure, advocated for increased funding of the Judiciary

UGANDA LAW SOCIETY | PRESIDENCY


KAMPALA - After serving at the helm of Uganda Law Society (ULS) for two years as its president, Francis Gimara is set to hand over power.

Speaking at one of the learning meetings held at the ULS secretariat on Wednesday, Gimara revealed that he is going to hand over power on April 9, 2018.

The elections for a new president will take place on April 8, 2018 at the Speke Resort Munyonyo. The prospective presidents will start campaigning on April 7.

"After two years of service as president law society, I want to say thank you to the members for trusting me and giving me support. At all times, I felt I had the support of the members of ULS and I leave humbled," he said.

During his two-year tenure at the helm of ULS, Gimara was at the forefront of advocating for the rule of law in the country.

Through him ULS started publishing quarterly rule of law reports, capturing instances of human rights violations and made recommendations to be taken into account by the various stakeholders.

The law society also started taking keen interest in civil litigation and filed a number of cases against the Government, including on underfunding of the Judiciary. Since taking over the mantle as the president ULS, Gimara has been vocal on the woes of the Judiciary.

In 2017, before the Parliamentary legal affairs committee, members of ULS, led by Gimara, asked for more funding of the Judiciary.

ULS also strongly opposed the Sim Card registration process, branding it illegal since it was not inclined on any of the laws of the country.

It further opposed the amendment of the Constitution to remove the age limit on presidency and boycotted a parliamentary invite to give its opinion on the Bill.

"I have done my best with what I could to ensure that law society is vibrant; it is visible and we are focusing on our statutory mandate of defending the rule of law," he said.

Gimara said during his leadership, they were able to make ULS more relevant to its members in terms of dealing with issues affecting them professionally and also providing more learning opportunities on some of the emerging legal issues.

"On rule of law, we have been audible on that matter and we will remain firm because we believe the law society must be the vanguard of the rule of law," he said.

"It has been an awesome too," he added.

Who is Gimara?
In 2016, Gimara was overwhelmingly voted by the lawyers as the ULS new president, replacing Ruth Sebatindira, who had held the same post for three years. He garnered 710 votes against Peter Musoke's 259 votes.

The 40-year-old is a partner at Arcadia Advocates, one of the leading law firms in Uganda. He is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda and all the subordinate courts.

He is a lawyer with a bias in insolvency law, trade and integration law, corporate governance law, agricultural law arbitration and dispute resolution.

He has participated in several commercial transactions, consultancies and has considerable experience in the management and development of business enterprises in Africa.

Gimara holds an a master's in Law from Cambridge University, a bachelor of laws from Makerere University and a diploma in legal practice from the Law Development Centre. He has a post graduate diploma in business administration from Edinburgh Business School.

He was the first company secretary of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) and once served as the acting managing director of UBC for six months.

He is also a member of several boards of key companies and organisations in Uganda.


(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});