Welcome, Oder

By Ofwono Opondo Kudos to Supreme Court Justice Arthur Oder on being appointed chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The appointment is significant in light of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Kizza Besigye election petition against Museveni in April. Justice Oder together with Justice Tsekoko ruled in favour of Besigye, and some critics had sought to build mountains out of their ruling. However, this is not the first time Museveni has placed tremendous confidence in Oder. In early 1986, Oder was appointed to chair the judicial commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in Uganda since independence. It was Oder, John Kawanga, John Nagenda, Dr Kiddu Makubuya, Joan Kakwenzire and Dr Jack Luyombya as commissioners, and Edward Ssekandi as lead counsel, who in their findings recommended the need for a new Constitution. From a historical perspective therefore there is no reason, for some self-appointed critics in the legal, academic and political world to doubt government commitment to the rule of law and independence of the judicial process. As chairman of the JSC, Oder is now in charge of a team to recommend and advise government on the appointment and disciplinary control of judges at all levels including the CJ. In addition he will receive and process people’s recommendations and complaints concerning the judiciary and the administration of justice. This appointment is no small achievement for a banana republic like Uganda where institutions of governance are still being built and at infancy. Just a few months ago the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, Justice Anthony Gubbay, and Judge Michael Gillestie were forced to resign because they overturned President Robert Mugabe’s decree on forceful acquisition of white farms code-named redistribution of wealth to blacks. Back in 1983, a bomb was thrown at the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate, the late John Obwangamoi by UPC elements in NASA because he had released opposition DP MP Prof Yoweri Kyesimira. Earlier on September 21, 1972, Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka was dragged out of court and murdered by Idi Amin’s intelligence accusing him of setting free a British businessman Daniel Stewart. Kiwanuka’s body disappeared, never to be traced. Stewart had been arrested without a warrant on allegations of “spying.” He was put on prolonged detention in Luzira prison without being charged in court forcing the then British High Commissioner Richard Slater to seek a habeas corpus from the CJ. Oder’s appointment comes against the backdrop of a un-savoury tirade against the bench as a whole being accused of partiality by people who should have the best appreciation of the judicial process. At a public lecture in Makerere University two weeks ago, vocal lawyers and opposition critics Dan Nabudere and Jean Barya made un-substantiated flay against the Supreme Court judges. According to Nabudere, the judgement in favour of Besigye was “altered” because Uganda’s intelligence system rumoured a coup threat. It is not yet clear why Nabudere or Barya would make this type of claim except for populist politics. Barya went further to question the integrity and thereby dismissed the credibility of all but one member of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), Prof Frederick Sempebwa. Barya and Nabudere were obviously re-echoing what lay people in town including Besigye had earlier said about certain institutions in Uganda. It has now become a habit for some people to vilify government officials for decisions they take in the course of their respective duties. But for such a criticism against the bench to come from people supposed to be eminent lawyers (Nabudere and Barya) requires serious sanction from the Law Council. If this trend goes unchecked, Uganda will not be able to build institutions of repute that society can depend on to dispense justice for all. Barya and Prof Frederick Jjuko, another lecturer at Makerere, seem to have joined Nabudere’s pessimist and doomsday intellectual group. They have come to falsely believe that unless they or their political allies occupy these institutions, then they are no good to the people. The situation is even more worrying when MPs led by the venerable Maj. John Kazoora (Kashari) have taken a vain position that they are not infallible. A number of MPs have turned the house into a place of political witch-hunt games and taken it upon themselves to vilify everybody else apart from himself or herself. It has been said before in the column that the independence and immunity accorded to Parliament as an institution is to further the rule of law for durable peace and human rights. Therefore no one MP or group should be allowed to exploit this privilege for purposes other than entrenching democratic values. It is against the principle of natural justice to attack and defame a person in a gazetted forum like Parliament or university lecture theatre when that person is unable to reply in his or her defence. The Speaker Ssekandi, and Ben Wacha, chairman of the rules and privileges committee, should and educate MPs that free speech in Parliament is not a licence to abuse, vilify and persecute persons without proper and sufficient grounds laid before it. One hopes MPs will not make laws to insulate themselves from public scrutiny. Ofwono Opondo is director information at the Movement Secretariat