Peter Nyombi S.C VS ULS: Lawyers without law

Oct 16, 2018

Why would anybody’s death bring you happiness just because you did not share their views (legal or political)?

By Jet JN Tumwebaze

Since the passing on of Hon. Nyombi, a lot of bad and good in almost equal measure has been said about his life on social media and more particularly about his actions while he served his motherland as her Attorney General.

Now that he has been laid to his final resting place, the natural temptation is to keep quiet and bury with him all the uncouth things that were said about him. However, I have been prompted to write by the brutality of what was said about him in death and the celebration of his death, especially by a few of my colleagues in our noble and learned profession.

I have also always found a lot of wisdom in the words of author Christopher Hitchens who said "Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity……. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence". The posts from the usual reckless and ill-informed social media hecklers could be ignored, but the most disturbing were from some members of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) that Nyombi was suspended from the ULS and died with a "Certificate of incompetence". These need to be corrected for posterity. The way Nyombi was treated by his own society will forever be a black stain on the conscience of the ULS and no other member should ever be subjected to the indignity of that illegal action.

On the August 29, 2013, ULS convened an Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EOGM) and the reason given then was that some members were unhappy with some legal opinions that Hon. Nyombi had rendered to Government as Attorney General. It later emerged that the real reasons were political and Financial (compensation from Government).

The conduct of some lawyers at that EOGM and the language used plus the complete disregard of the due process of Law and personal rights made me wonder what colour of demon had visited this once noble calling. Even a group of "Boda Boda" riders meting out mob justice to a common thief, would have behaved better. The disparaging of Hon. Nyombi went on for over two hours in full view of his wonderful daughter Ms. Patricia Nyombi who occasionally fought back tears. As minutes of that EOGM would show, I warned of the consequences of the illegal actions by the members on one of us because of his legal opinions but all the moderate voices were outshouted and the ULS (a simple majority of about 300 members who attended out of the membership of over 3000) voted to suspend Hon. Nyombi and issue him with a "Certificate of Incompetence".

I even then wrote an article in the New Vision about the injustice of the actions taken by the ULS. Hon. Nyombi filed a case against ULS challenging its actions against him and our Law Firm was privileged to represent him. In a 35 page judgment, Court agreed with Hon. Nyombi and found that the entire process was illegal, improper and irrational.

Court held "….Uganda Law Society had no legal mandate to issue a Certificate of Incompetence to a member because of his legal position or views…. The EOGM had no authority to make a finding whether the opinion of Hon. Peter Nyombi….. was inconsistent with the constitution. This is a preserve of the Constitutional Court. While defending the resolution ULS argued that to put in effect the resolution requires further action aside from merely passing it… when I read this argument my mind wondered whether a serious body like Uganda Law Society indulged in pronouncing a useless resolution".

The above is not simple language to be used by a judge against a society of lawyers and exposed ULS as a body of Lawyers without respect for Law. The leadership of the ULS at the time should have apologized to Hon. Nyombi and resigned after that indictment by Court but they simply paid costs and moved on.

One would have expected that after Hon. Nyombi had embarrassed this group in Court they would have learnt one or two things. But upon news of his death, a few chose to once again, torment his family with horrible comments. Why would anybody celebrate the death of any member of the human family? Why would you say despicable things about a dead man when he has no opportunity to say anything in his defence? Why would anybody's death bring you happiness just because you did not share their views (legal or political)? How did we get here as a people? Have we failed as parents that we are churning out insensitive scorpions to the world and as religious leaders that the moral cups of our children are half empty? Has our past history of political instability taught us to hate even the dead?

God bless the soul of Hon. Nyombi and God bless and heal our nation. 

Writer is a partner with Kampala Associated Advocates

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